MPERATOR 


.  -  •'-  .    '-     . 


BY-THE-AUTHOR-OF 

/MARTYRDOMOr-AN-EMPRESS 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


.-, 


IMPERATOR  ET  REX 

WILLIAM    II.    OF    GERMANY 


BY  THE  AUTHOR  OF 

"THE    MARTYRDOM    OF 
AN    EMPRESS" 

ILLUSTRATED 


HARPER  &  BROTHERS    PUBLISHERS 
NEW      YORK      AND      LONDON 

1904 


Copyright,  1904,  by  HARPER  &  BROTHERS. 

All  rights  reserved. 
Published  September,  1904. 


c.s 


TO 

EMPEROR  WILLIAM   II. 
WHO 

— moving  up  from  high  to  higher, 
Becomes  on  Fortune's  crowning  slope 
The  pillar  of  a  people's  hope, 

The  centre  of  a  world's  desire." 


M832911 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

WILLIAM,    I.    R Frontispiece 

PORTRAIT  AND  AUTOGRAPH  OF  PRINCE  WILLIAM 
AT  THE  TIME  OF  HIS  ENROLMENT  IN  THE 

ARMY Facing  p.  1 6 

ON  THE  JUNGFERNSEE THE  FOUNDER  OF  GER- 
MANY'S NAVAL  POWER "  22 

PRINCE    WILLIAM    SKETCHING    NEAR    BONN   ..."  42 
PRINCE     HENRY     OF     PRUSSIA,     BROTHER     OF     THE 

EMPEROR "  76 

"WHAT  FIERY  GLEAMS  OF  ANGER" "       116 

THE  EMPEROR,  A  FEW  YEARS  AFTER  HIS  AC- 
CESSION    176 

AFTER  A  HARD  MORNING'S  WORK l86 

THE    EMPEROR    "  CROSS-COUNTRY    RIDING*'     .     .  196 

STEERING  HIS  BOAT  IN  THE  FJORDS      ....  2O6 

RETURNING  FROM  A  CHAMOIS  HUNT      ....  222 

A  LESSON  IN  STRATEGY! 234 

CHARLOTTE,  HEREDITARY  PRINCESS  OF  SAXE- 
MEININGEN,  ELDEST  SISTER  OF  THE  EM- 
PEROR    240 

BERNHARDT,  HEREDITARY  PRINCE  OF  SAXE- 
MEININGEN,  HUSBAND  OF  PRINCESS  CHAR- 
LOTTE, THE  EMPEROR'S  ELDEST  SISTER  .  .  244 

BREAKFASTING,  "  EN  TETE-A-TETE,"    ON    A    WINTER 

MORNING 276 

"LET  NOT  THY  LEFT  HAND  KNOW"  "      280 


Helmed  and  tall,  on  Baltic  sands, 
Gray  as  the  gray  steel  in  her  hands, 
A  Valkyr  waits,  and,  piercingly 
Roving  the  mist-clad,  weary  sea, 
An  answer  her  blue  glance  demands. 

Comes  the  sad  Twilight?     Shall  the  strands 
Of  Fate  enmesh  in  bitter  bands 
The  Gods — O  thou  in  panoply 
Helmed  and  tall? 

Ah,  never,  never,  while  she  stands 
To  glimpse  the  flash  of  hostile  brands! 
This  cup,  Germania,  to  thee 
I  drink.     Be  ever  strong  and  free, 
And  guard  thou  royal,  loyal  lands, 
Helmed  and  tall! 

M.  M. 


IMPERATOR   ET   REX 


CHAPTER   I 

THE  pretty,  placid  little  city  of  Bonn  was  sunning 
itself  in  the  brilliant  morning  light,  where  it  nestles 
beside  the  deep,  blue  Rhine.  The  broad  river  danced 
and  gurgled  as  it  sped  away,  with  shoals  of  diamonds, 
emeralds,  and  sapphires  flashing  on  its  gleaming  surface 
wherever  the  sun  caught  its  ripples ;  and  on  the  Es- 
planade and  the  Promenade  the  chestnuts  had  just 
burst  into  pink-and-white  bloom,  while  in  the  "  Hof- 
garten"  there  were  some  delightful  bits  of  greensward, 
with  fountains  splashing  here  and  there  melodiously 
above  beds  of  begonias,  geraniums,  and  heliotrope. 
Now  and  again  clumps  of  rose-laurel,  of  pomegranate, 
dotted  with  their  crimson  flowers  like  crumpled  silk 
crepe,  and  of  sulphur-hued  mimosa  brought  from  the 
Royal  Conservatories,  raised  their  more  ambitious  heads 
beneath  fine  old  lindens  and  Italian  poplars  in  all  the 
glory  of  their  spring  livery. 

It  was  almost  noon,  and  the  cloudless  splendor  of  the 
intensely  blue  May  sky  bathed  every  nook  and  corner, 
while  in  the  distance  the  strains  of  a  military  band 
were  faintly  audible  above  the  ringing  laughter  of  some 
golden-locked,  blue-eyed  Teuton  babies,  running  after 
flocks  of  pale  tinted  butterflies,  and  the  noisy  quarrels  of 
countless  rowdy  sparrows  tumbling  one  another  in  the 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

dew,  which,  like  a  veil  of  silver  gossamer  spangled  with 
crystal,  still  lingered  in  the  thick  grass. 

At  the  stroke  of  twelve  a  young  man  of  nineteen  or 
twenty  walked  swiftly  from  the  "Universitats-Gebaude  " 
towards  the  "  Coblenzer-Thor,"  looking  neither  to  right 
nor  to  left,  and  absent-mindedly  touching  the  visor  of  his 
student-cap  in  silent  and  almost  mechanical  acknowl- 
edgment of  the  many  low  obeisances  greeting  him  on 
all  sides. 

It  was  difficult  not  to  be  struck  by  the  lithe  elasticity 
of  the  slim  figure,  betraying  a  subdued  overflow  of 
energy,  a  sort  of  repressed  vitality,  a  vigor  and  a  nerve 
quite  unusual.  His  dark -blue  eyes — marvellous,  intense, 
and  changeable  in  tint  and  expression  with  every 
varying  mood — were  fixed  intently  before  him,  as  if  he 
could  actually  see  and  follow  the  shining  thread  of  a 
dream  as  it  wound  away  from  his  active  brain,  and, 
indeed,  in  that  seductive  Lenten  weather,  a  solitary 
young  man's  fancy  might  be  much  inclined  to  turn  to 
bright  and  enticing  visions. 

"There  is  a  lad  who  will  some  day  astonish  the  world, 
for  he  is  cast  in  no  ordinary  mould." 

The  speaker  was  an  old  man,  not  very  tall,  not  very 
heavily  built,  square-faced,  but  with  delicate,  strong 
features,  a  rather  prominent  nose,  a  large,  thin-lipped, 
sarcastic,  firmly  chiselled  mouth,  and  humorous,  rest- 
less, deep-set  eyes,  which  were  known  from  one  end  of 
Europe  to  the  other  as  belonging  to  that  King  of  Wits 
Prinpe  Gortchakbw,  Chancellor  of  All  the  Russias.  He 
had  his  'weaknesses,  his  foibles,  but  he  was  a  true  Slav 
in  intuitive  sagacity,  possessed  unerring  acumen,  and  a 
mind  as  sensitive  in  its  instincts  as  an  electric  wire  is 
to  heat,  for  which  excellent  reasons  his  words  created 
a  great  impression  upon  me. 

"This   young   Hohenzollern,"    he   continued,    in    his 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

well-modulated  voice,  which  had,  however,  a  kind  of 
trenchant  edge  upon  it  that  gave  it  an  immense  amount 
of  character — "this  young  Hohenzollern  will  considerably 
outshine  all  his  predecessors  on  the  Throne;  he  will " 
here  he  waved  a  hand,  in  color  like  dusky  ivory,  but 
still  muscular  and  peremptory — "be  the  mainspring  of 
Germany,  my  dear  child,  and  his  influence  will  be  felt 
throughout  Europe!" 

Here  the  Prince  looked  at  the  gold  crook  of  his  cane, 
just  as  a  crystal-gazer  into  his  crystal,  and,  as  if  he 
descried  something  deliciously  comical  on  its  polished 
surface;  the  lines  about  his  humorous  old  mouth  deep- 
ened and  quivered,  then  he  glanced  up  at  me. 

"Ah!  you  smile,  madame!  You  think  that  I  am 
overstraining  my  prophetic  gifts,"  he  said,  with  a 
chuckle,  his  eyes  swimming  in  a  glow  of  delighted 
merriment;  "but  no,  I  am  not  burdening  my  soul  with 
an  anticipatory  falsehood,  for  there  lies  in  wait  in  this 
boy's  person  a  tremendous  surprise  for  the  Teutonic 
race,  and  for  the  world  at  large,  as  well.  '  C'est  le  cas 
de  le  dire!1 ' 

We  had  by  now  arrived  at  the  end  of  the  "  Haupt- 
Allee,"  and  crossed  the  road  to  retrace  our  steps  on  the 
opposite  side.  It  appeared  to  me  as  if  there  were  a 
heady  fragrance  in  the  air,  a  something  suggestive  of  a 
million  mysterious  voices  whispering  secrets.  The  sun 
was  flooding  the  wide  prospect  with  a  marvellously 
ethereal  amber  light,  and  I  turned  eagerly  to  my  sage 
political  mentor,  who  I  saw  was  still  in  the  vein  of 
prophecy. 

"Do  you  seriously  mean  all  that?"  I  asked,  simply  to 
set  him  going  again. 

"Do  I  seriously  mean  that  this  at  present  shy,  some- 
•what  stilted,  and  '  efface '  youth  will  one  day  astonish 
the  world?  Of  course  I  mean  it,  '  cent  fois  plus  qu'une.' 

3 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

I  am  only  astonished  that  there  are  not  more  people 
to  divine  it;  but,  alas!  one  always  has  to  look  closely 
and  minutely  to  see  anything  that  is  really  worth 
seeing;  the  kind  of  moral  or  physical  beauty  that 
jumps  at  you  is  bound  to  be  shallow  and  worthless,  a 
mere  simulacrum,  an  approximation  to  the  genuine 
article.  It's  absurd — but  there  it  is!  Prince  William 
is  a  nature  inexhaustible  of  promise.  He  is  deep  as  a 
well.  Wit,  generosity,  race,  nerve,  prompt  decision, 
energy  in  action,  absolutely  unbending  obstinacy  of 
purpose,  pluck,  and  a  rare  intelligence  are  all  there, 
with  a  great  deal  besides.  All  the  mystery  and  magic, 
the  essential  principles  of  sovereignty,  are  there,  too. 
He  will  be  a  man  in  the  full  acceptation  of  the  word.  I 
see  and  feel  it,  and  the  future,  in  so  far  as  he  is  concerned, 
is  miraculously  real  to  me." 

With  which  peroration  Gortchakow  decapitated  at  one 
blow  of  his  stout  walking  -  cane  six  or  seven  venture- 
some dandelions  staining  with  their  dazzling  gold  the 
puritanically  immaculate  lawn  we  were  skirting. 

"There  is  a  kind  of  intangible  sense  of  responsibility 
in  such  sayings,"  I  said,  picking  up  the  "dear  remains" 
of  the  dandelions  and  tossing  them  meditatively  in  my 
left  hand. 

"There  is  also,  perhaps,  a  very  tangible  sense  of 
impudence  in  so  coolly  appropriating  the  future  of  a 
monarch  that  is  to  be,"  he  replied,  laughing.  "But 
prophets  are  the  most  unprincipled  of  people,  as  you 
may  now  notice,  and  never  carry  delicacy  too  far.  It 
is  by  no  means  a  joke,  I  assure  you,  to  have  the  'seeing 
eye.'  Nevertheless,  I  wish  I  could  live  long  enough  to 
prove  to  you  that  my  horoscope  is  unimpeachable. 
Unfortunately  I  shall  in  all  probability  be  long  dead 
and  forgotten  when  our  young  friend  ascends  the  dual 
Throne  of  Prussia  and  Germany." 

4 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

During  the  years  that  elapsed  before  these  words 
were  proven  beyond  a  doubt,  they  kept  recurring  and 
recurring  to  me,  and  it  is  because  that  prophecy  was  so 
startlingly  true  a  one  that,  after  a  quarter  of  a  century, 
I  have  transcribed  it  here  word  for  word.  Indeed,  that 
May  morning  is  indelibly  imprinted  upon  my  memory, 
as  vivid  a  picture  as  had  I  been  through  this  curious 
experience  only  yesterday. 

I  can  still  see  the  little  old  town,  with  the  dazzling  sun- 
rays  burning  upon  it,  the  long,  irregular  masses  of  houses 
standing  out  in  varying  shades  of  gray  and  dull  red 
against  varying  shades  of  green,  with  a  transparent  blue 
penumbra  where  the  clear-cut  shadows  fell,  and  the 
little  old  man  walking  beside  me,  the  lines  of  humor  em- 
phasizing themselves  around  his  faded  lips,  and  his  eyes 
twinkling  with  that  particularly  contagious  "esprit" 
which  one  rarely  encounters  outside  the  Slav  or  Latin 
races. 

I  remember  perfectly,  too,  the  brightness  of  that 
spring  weather,  green  and  blue  like  a  cluster  of  larkspurs, 
and  so  different  from  the  silvery  skies,  aquamarine  seas, 
and  purple  heathers  of  mine  own  native  land. 

To-day  the  quiet,  unobtrusive,  almost  constrained 
student  of  the  Bonn  University  has  brought  to  pass 
all  that  was  then  told  me,  and  much  more  than  that; 
and  even  Gortchakow,  his  Prophet  in  Extraordinary, 
were  he  to  come  to  life  again,  would  perchance  be 
amazed  at  the  felicity  of  the  words  he  pronounced  while 
we  strolled  together  at  random  under  the  spreading 
fragrance  of  the  acacia  blossoms  and  the  great  limes, 
gently  bending  beneath  the  weight  of  their  intoxicatingly 
odoriferous  clusters  of  flowerets. 

Often,  also,  my  retina  reacts  like  a  photographic  plate, 
and  another  picture  develops  itself  —  a  quite  circum- 
stantial picture  it  is,  too. 

5 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

A  stretch  of  wind-flogged  water  becomes  visible  anew 
to  me,  and  the  deck  of  a  small  pleasure  yacht  laboriously 
beating  its  way  up  the  Rhine  in  the  teeth  of  one  of  the 
terrible  white  squalls  so  common  to  that  river  in  the 
early  spring.  Prince  Gortchakow,  leaning  against  the 
bulwarks  at  my  side,  and  gazing  abstractedly  at  the 
poignantly  sombre  sky  above  us  and  at  the  flying  foam 
scattered  all  over  the  tumultuous  surface  of  the  water, 
as  by  a  gigantic  fan,  says,  suddenly: 

"If  eyes  were  made  for  seeing,  see  and  admire  the 
superb  contrast  between  the  glories  of  this  morning  and 
the  desolation  of  this  twilight,  between  the  merry  songs 
of  the  birds  we  then  listened  to,  the  shameless  extrav- 
agance of  flowers  and  verdure  and  sunshine,  the  riot  of 
intoxicated  insects  buzzing  in  the  deep,  cool  greenery, 
and  the  infernal  gloom  of  those  bellying  clouds  like  an 
army  with  threatening  banners  zigzagging  up  from  the 
world's  rim  to  engulf  us." 

"It's  my  duty  to  caution  you,"  I  remark,  prudently, 
"that  you  will  soon  be  drenched  to  the  skin  if  you  per- 
sist in  remaining  on  deck." 

"I  am  not  dreaming  of  denying  it,"  replies  the  Prince, 
submissively.  "But  all  I  have  to  say,  if  you  can  bear 
the  whole  improbable  truth  at  once,  is  that  I  am  going 
to  watch  this  storm  from  here.  I  am  appreciative  of 
your  kind  care,  and  I  may  add  that  you  are  without 
exception  the  nicest  child  I  have  ever  met,  but  my 
obstinacy  is  proverbial,  and  remain  on  deck  I  will!" 

At  this  juncture  a  small  canoe,  dangerously  narrow 
and  light,  appears  within  our  visual  ray.  It  is  tossing 
like  a  cork  upon  the  turbulent  river,  and  looks  as  if 
at  any  moment  it  must  heel  over  and  precipitate  its 
occupant  into  the  swift  current.  As  the  yacht  and  the 
canoe  shoot  past  each  other,  at  the  merest  fraction  of  a 
cable's  length,  we  recognize  the  slender  youth  paddling 

6 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

against  such  odds,  and  with  so  fierce  a  contentment  ex- 
pressed in  every  line  of  his  set  face  and  determined  blue 
eyes. 

"Prince  William!"  we  both  exclaim  at  once,  in  ter- 
rified amazement,  but  almost  before  we  can  order  the 
yacht's  course  to  be  checked  and  proffer  our  assistance 
the  tiny  craft  has  reached  the  shelter  of  the  city  quays ; 
and  although  we  halt  for  a  quarter  of  an  hour  in  mid- 
stream, we  know  that  the  Royal  lad  is  safe  and  that 
he  needs  not  our  assistance,  for  on  that  young  face 
there  shone  a  quality  of  expression  rare  indeed  and 
wholly  reassuring,  and  in  those  deep,  haunting  eyes,  the 
constant  miracle  of  absolute  pluck  and  all-conquering 
power. 

"Je  vous  Vavais  bien  dit  que  c'est  un  gaillard  qui  ria 
pas  froid  aux  yeux!" 

It  is  the  voice  of  Gortchak6w  raised  above  the  shrill 
clamor  of  the  wind ;  then  we  both  look  at  each  other,  for 
the  prophecy  stands  out  with  singular  clearness  against 
the  background  of  our  minds;  and  although  the  Chan- 
cellor adds,  in  his  usual  bantering  tone,  "  See  how  mighty 
is  the  truth!  See  how  she  prevails!  See  how  the  scoffer 
is  confounded!"  yet  I  now  feel  how  serious  is  his  mean- 
ing, how  perfect  and  complete  his  diagnosis  of  the  future 
Emperor's  character. 

After  a  few  minutes'  silence  I  remark:  "What  of  that 
crippled  arm  one  hears  so  much  about?  He  seemed  to 
be  using  it  pretty  freely." 

"Oh,"  replies  the  Prince,  dryly,  "those  reports, 
like  the  rest,  are  far  from  accurate.  It  is  no  disfigurement 
whatsoever;  there  is  some  lack  of  power,  some  in- 
convenience, some  discomfort,  but  with  an  ardent  nature 
like  his  this  mishap  has  only  served  to  urge  him  on  to 
greater  effort.  In  every  instance  he  is  bent  upon  out- 
doing those  who  are  not  hampered  by  a  similar  defect, 

7 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

and  he  succeeds;  yes,  yes,  my  dear,  he  is  the  very  em- 
bodiment of  courage,  perseverance,  and  endurance. 
Don't  forget  what  I  said  this  morning." 

Why,  it  is  permitted  to  ask,  have  misconceptions 
and  misleading  statements  always  wheeled  and  swerved 
about  that  characterful  personality,  in  a  relentless  flight 
like  that  of  noxious  insects  ?  Why  is  the  world  so  loath 
to  recognize  and  acknowledge  the  resolute  and  forceful 
lines  upon  which  it  is  built  and  the  real  beauties  it 
possesses?  Truth  is  often  strange,  and  this  one  seems 
particularly  so  to  the  ingenious  and  ill-informed  de- 
tractors who  have  elected  to  sit  in  judgment  upon 
Emperor  William  ever  since  1888,  and,  alas!  even  to 
many  of  those  who  have  known  him  intimately  from 
the  very  beginning. 

There  is  scarcely  any  action  or  speech  of  his,  be  it  ever 
so  trivial  or  insignificant,  that  has  not  been  seized  upon 
by  eager  hands  and  distorted  in  order  to  gratify  popular 
prejudices.  For  instance,  it  has  been  adjudged  a  mat- 
ter of  the  most  sinister  import,  that  he,  a  constitutional 
Ruler,  should  have  written  Regis  voluntas  suprema  lex, 
in  the  Golden  Book  of  the  Munich  City  Council.  Now 
to  me,  as  a  monarchist,  there  is  no  maxim  more  just  and 
right  than  this  in  its  literal  interpretation,  but  for  the 
benefit  of  those  professing  different  beliefs  be  it  said, 
that  the  right  of  inscription  in  the  Golden  Book  is  re- 
served exclusively  to  members  of  the  Reigning  House 
of  Bavaria,  and  that  the  Emperor,  requested  by  the 
Prince  Regent  to  write  therein,  at  first  declined,  but  at 
length  laughingly  complied,  leaving  the  terrible  Latin 
sentence  merely  as  evidence  of  the  fact  that  he  did  so 
at  the  command  of  the  Sovereign. 

Oh!  the  alleged  failings  of  this  particular  Monarch 
have  been  highly  colored,  but  —  pazienza  —  misrep- 
resentation cannot  last  forever,  it  is  devoutly  to  be 

8 


IMPERATOR   ET    REX 

hoped,  and  meanwhile,  without  being  too  copious  or  too 

communicative,  it  may  be  permissible  to  set  right  a  few 

distorted  facts,  which  is  the  aim  of  this  simple  volume. 

********* 

********* 

On  the  27th  day  of  January,  1859,  the  capital  of 
Prussia  was  suddenly  roused  from  the  despondency 
into  which  it  had  been  thrown  by  the  intense  gloom  of 
the  political  horizon  and  by  the  incurable  malady  of  its 
King,  Frederick  William  IV.,  who,  entombed  in  the 
grim  magnificence  of  an  old  Roman  palace,  was  existing 
rather  than  living  out  his  miserable  days,  a  mental  and 
physical  wreck,  under  the  unceasing  care  of  his  devoted 
consort,  Queen  Elizabeth. 

At  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  cannon  had  been 
fired  —  one  hundred  and  twenty-one  salvoes,  if  you 
please — booming  loudly  beneath  the  cold,  bleak,  snow- 
laden  Northern  sky,  proclaiming  to  all  the  good  citi- 
zens of  Berlin  the  birth  of  a  Royal  Prince,  of  a  future 
King  of  Prussia,  and  perchance  of  Great  Britain  *  also — 
and  hi!  presto!  the  general  air  of  dark  melancholy,  of 
resentful  disenchantment,  of  sullen  fatigue,  which  had 
enwrapped  the  town  like  a  heavy,  stifling  mantle,  made 
way  with  surprising  swiftness  for  an  atmosphere  delight- 
fully wide-awake,  joyous,  and  bright. 

The  immense  crowds  of  enthusiasts,  suddenly  filling 
all  the  streets  and  thoroughfares,  might  have  tumbled 
from  the  skies,  so  unlike  were  they  to  the  usually  slow 
and  circumspect  population  of  the  City  on  the  Spree. 

*  As  the  only  grandchild  of  Queen  Victoria,  and  the  son  of  her 
eldest  daughter,  he  was  sixth  in  succession  to  the  English  throne, 
the  fotir  preceding  his  mother  being  the  Prince  of  Wales  and 
his  brothers,  the  Princes  Alfred,  Arthur,  and  Leopold.  The 
birth  of  children  to  these  other  heirs  has  since  placed  Emperor 
William  far  down  in  the  line  of  succession. 

9 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

During  thirty-six  sljots  the  throng,  massed  around 
the  "  Kronprinzliche-P.alais  "  and  the  "  Kupfergraben- 
Kaserne  " — where  two  batteries  of  the  "  G arde-Ar tiller ie- 
Regiment"  were  firing  those  momentous  salutes — had 
stood  swaying  with  mouths  half  open,  staring  excited- 
ly into  space,  then,*  as  the  thirty-seventh  thundered 
forth,  clear  upon  the  frofcty  air  rose  endless  shouts 
and  hurrahs  quite  bewildering  in  their  number,  power, 
and  volume,  as  they  rhythmically  neared  and  receded 
with  the  fluctuating  motion  of  those  closely  packed 
ranks. 

It  was  truly  a  delicious  plunge  from  saddest  darkness 
into  dazzling  sunshine,  from  desolation  into  purest  con- 
fidence and  exultation,  thrilling  and  romantic  and  fairy- 
like.  Nor  was  there  anything  of  the  immature,  the  un- 
finished, or  the  tentative  in  this  spontaneous  popular 
revulsion  of  feeling,  for  it  had  the  strength,  the  poise, 
the  vigor,  and  the  alertness  of  an  absolute  resurrection 
to  all  that  is  hopeful,  generous  and  loyal. 

In  the  evening  Berlin  was  "  en-fete"  the  labyrinthine 
streets,  avenues  and  counter-avenues  of  that,  in  those 
days,  so  frankly  unlovely  town  were  superbly  illumi- 
nated, the  black -blue  of  the  winter  night  had  been 
changed,  as  if  at  the  touch  of  a  magic  wand,  into  golden 
blue,  with  broken  shafts  of  prismatic  colors  caught  in 
every  sombre  nook  and  angle,  and  wonderful  chains  of 
pink  and  blue  and  green  and  yellow  globes  gleaming 
through  the  shimmer  of  elfin-filaments  woven  by  the 
busy  hands  of  King  Winter. 

A  thicker  veil,  a  gauze  of  pearl  and  silver,  dimmed 
the  glacial  blue  of  the  imprisoned  river  and  blurred  the 
solidified  surface  of  the  palace  lake,  but  in  this  dim- 
ness, in  this  soft  blur,  were  held  in  solution  all  the  tints 

*  Thirty-six  shots  is  the  salute  for  a  Royal  Princess.  The 
thirty-seventh  told  the  people  that  the  Heir  was  born. 

10 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

of  the  spectrum,  so  that  one  could  discern  elusive  greens, 
fugitive  roses,  and  translucent  waves  of  lilac  and  amber, 
forming  a  sort  of  enchanted  mist  all  around  the  spot 
where  the  cause  of  all  this  magnificence,  the  new-born 
babe,  slumbered  sweetly  in  his  satin-lined  crib. 

Happy  as  every  one  was,  yet  there  was  somebody 
happier  than  the  very  happiest,  and  that  was  the  Prince 
Regent  (later  Emperor  William  I.),  at  the  advent  of 
this  grandchild,  destined  one  day  to  reign  in  his  stead! 
Marvelling,  palpitating  with  new  hopes,  he,  as  soon  as 
the  auspicious  news  had  been  brought  to  him  by  his 
aide-de-camp,  Count  Perponcher — who  now  at  the  age 
of  eighty-five  is  still  a  great  dignitary  of  the  German 
Court — flew  down  the  steps  of  the  Ministry  of  Foreign 
Affairs,  where  he  was  at  the  moment,  and,  breathlessly 
pulling  on  his  military  overcoat  as  he  ran,  jumped  into 
a  passing  cab  —  since  in  his  impatience  he  would  not 
await  even  the  summoning  of  his  own  equipage — and 
promising  the  amazed  Jehu  a  truly  princely  "  douceur" 
drove  in  the  wretched,  mud-bespattered  conveyance 
to  greet  the  dainty  morsel  of  humanity  who  was  thus 
transforming  present  and  future  for  him. 

Bewildered  a  little  by  the  suddenness  of  his  grand- 
fatherly  beatitude,  but  conscious — acutely,  exultantly 
conscious — of  it  as  a  delectable  condition,  he  arrived  at 
the  "  Kronprinzliche  -  Palais  "  and  the  sight  that  met 
him  there  banished  immediately  all  feelings  personal,  for 
His  Royal  Highness  Prince  Ferdinand- William- Victor- 
Albert  was  not  one  of  those  coarse,  red-faced,  squealing 
infants  who  frown  themselves  sourly  into  this  vale  of 
tears,  but  a  delicate,  pretty  baby,  with  an  exquisite  text- 
ure of  skin,  smooth  and  rosily  pale,  the  tiny  blue  veins 
faintly  visible  at  the  wee  temples,  and  unusually  alert 
and  wide-open  sapphire-hued  eyes  already  showing  a 
grave  underglow,  as  if  the  very  beginning  of  life  was  for 


1MPERATOR   ET    REX 

him  an  especially  perilous  undertaking,  to  be  met  with 
extreme  energy. 

Poor  little  fellow!  the  firm  curves  of  his  satiny  lips 
indicated  already  that  energy  was  indeed  one  of  the 
many  gifts  he  had  received  as  his  portion. 

The  first  little  cry  heard  by  the  grandfather  startled 
him;  it  was  a  sharp,  curious  little  cry,  not  of  pain,  but 
of  simple  self-assertion.  " I  am  here!"  it  seemed  to  say, 
and  the  Regent  shook  with  mirth  while  yet  his  eyes  were 
liquid  with  emotion. 

Hovering  around  the  little  one,  his  imposing  West- 
phalian  nurse — Frau  Hagedorn — was  busy  with  a  game 
of  make-believe,  pretending  that  some  white  robes — 
indescribable  complexities  of  soft  laces  and  airy  ruffles 
— demanded  her  immediate  attention  in  a  distant  cor- 
ner, but  by  a  series  of  "etapes"  and  "detours"  of  ex- 
ceeding strategic  value,  ever  and  ever  again  approach- 
ing her  newly  found  hero,  with  a  very  commotion 
of  pride  and  gratification  fluttering  within  her  vast 
bosom. 

It  may  be  utterly  impossible  for  some  people  to  con- 
ceive the  state  of  Fraj^jJ^gejiprn's  mind,  and  yet  it  is 
a  solemn  fact  that  before  the  Royal  youngster  was  a 
week  old,  she  had  extracted  from  what  she  styled  his 
"phenomenal  voice"  an  immense  amount  of  satisfac- 
tion. It  gave  her,  she  claimed,  an  impression  of  intense 
vitality,  of  singular  power,  of  unknown  possibilities, 
and,  arguing  from  these  premises,  she,  like  Gortchakow, 
would  prophesy.  His  Royal  Highness — Frau  Hagedorn 
was,  from  the  very  first,  punctilious  about  such  appel- 
lations— would  one  day  be  a  noble,  free-handed  Prince 
of  gigantic  moral  strength  and  achievements.  It  is  sin- 
gular how  truly  inspired  were  all  those  prophecies!  In- 
deed, she  was  nearly  beside  herself  with  pride  at  having 
been  selected  to  nurse  a  scion  of  Royalty,  so  obviously 

12 


IMPERATOR   ET    REX 

destined  to  make  himself  heard  in  the  world.     It  is  a 
way  women  have  with  their  idols ! 

One  day  when  Field-Marshal  von  Wrangel  (Papa 
Wrangel  as  he  used  to  be  called)  ventured  to  ask  her 
if  she  considered  little  Prince  William  as  "  ein  hubscher 
Junge  "  (a  pretty  lad),  the  indignant  nurse  turned  upon 
the  aged  warrior  with  flaming  cheeks  and  fierce  eyes, 
exclaiming : 

"A  lad!     Why,  he  is  no  lad  at  all— he  is  a  Prince!" 

"But,"  suggested  von  Wrangel,  as  one  loath  to  dog- 
matize in  the  tone  of  absolute  assertion,  "surely  a 
Prince  can  be  a  pretty  lad?" 

The  conclusion  of  the  interview  is  not  stated,  and  I 
only  mention  this  portion  of  it  to  give  an  object-lesson 
upon  the  difference  existing  between  the  devotion  ram- 
pant, and  the  adoration  regardant,  which  love  arouses 
in  the  hearts  of  different  feminine  worshippers,  and  also 
to  solemnly  place  on  record  that  this  particular  Royal 
nurse  was  not  one  to  stand  dumb  if  an  attack  had  been 
made  upon  her  illustrious  nurseling.  Indeed,  in  his  de- 
fence she  became  comparable  to  a  lioness  guarding 
her  young,  which  is  exactly  as  it  should  always  be. 

The  grounds  immediately  appertaining  to  the  "  Kron- 
prinzliche -Palais  "  were  the  undisputed  domain  of  child 
and  nurse,  and  Prince  Willy,  "  der  kleine  Fritz  " — as  he 
was  sometimes  called  within  the  family  circle  during 
his  early  youth — was  kept  as  much  as  possible  in  the 
open  air  during  that  first  winter  of  his  life,  in  order  to 
harden  him,  and  to  combat  the  delicacy  of  constitution 
that  had  from  the  first  filled  his  grandfather's  heart 
with  so  much  tenderness  and  alarm. 

Months  passed,  and  the  weather  grew  mild,  the  snow- 
filled  clouds  drifted  away,  the  sun  came  back,  and  his 
rays  were  like  gold  that  has  been  washed  and  polished 
very  carefully  by  a  master-hand. 

13 


IMPERATOR   ET    REX 

How  good  it  is  to  be  a  toddling  baby!  How  good, 
especially,  to  be  swathed  in  the  precious  laces  of  a  baby 
Prince,  and  to  try  one's  first  steps  among  the  blue  and 
purple  irises,  the  white  violets,  and  the  golden  prim- 
roses of  a  Royal  Park,  in  gay  June  weather,  with  the 
birds  carolling  their  liquid  epithalamiums  far  above 
one's  curly  head,  and  the  unavoidable  sparrows  coming 
and  going,  hopping  fussily  from  twig  to  twig  and  loudly 
twittering  of  affairs  all-important  to  them,  while  yet 
they  dart  wary  little  sidelong  glances  in  quest  of  imag- 
inary enemies! 

Everything  at  that  tender  age  affords  especial  inter- 
est and  delight — the  velvety  spiders  hanging  motionless 
in  their  gossamer  lairs,  watching  for  giddy  gnats  and 
venturesome  flies,  the  green  caterpillars  crawling  under 
the  leaves,  the  dew  clinging  in  huge  iridescent  drops 
to  the  thick  grass,  shining  ruby-red  in  the  hearts  of  the 
roses,  or  gleaming  in  the  delicately  enamelled  cups  of 
the  "  boutons  d'or,"  and,  last  but  not  least,  the  soft,  re- 
current iterations  of  the  cuckoo  whispering  in  the  mid- 
dle-distance untranslatable  messages  of  joy  and  of  hope. 

When  the  drowsiness  of  noon  induces  slumber,  it  is 
not  a  bad  thing  to  lie  curled  up  in  a  thick  plaid  upon 
the  russet  carpet  of  warm,  crinkly  needles  beneath  tall, 
flat-topped  Italian  pines,  and  to  close  one's  bright  eyes 
in  slumber  to  the  tune  of  some  ancient  melody  droned 
by  one's  vigilant  nurse. 

All  these  delicious  experiences  and  many  others  were 
little  Prince  Willy's  at  that  period  of  which  I  write;  but, 
alas  for  the  uncertain  glories  of  Northern  summers  and 
Royal  babyhoods!  They  both  have  their  cold,  gray 
spells,  their  scudding  clouds,  their  periods  of  sadness 
and  of  lamentation.  One  cannot,  of  course,  always  go 
on  laughing  and  singing  in  the  face  of  infelicitous  weath- 
er, when  the  wind  gurgles  and  hoots  in  the  chimney  like 

14 


IMPERATOR   ET    REX 

a  distracted  banshee,  nearly  frightening  one  to  death, 
and  when  the  rainfalls  drip,  drip,  drip,  swish,  swish, 
swish,  upon  the  blotted  landscape. 

It  would  indeed  behoove  every  future  Ruler  to  receive 
at  his  birth  a  toy  sceptre,  with  a  thorn  of  gold  set  into 
its  handle  in  such  a  fashion  as  to  prick  the  tender  flesh 
of  the  baby-hand  when  he  plays  with  it,  thus  accustom- 
ing him  to  what  he  has  to  expect  from  the  training  he 
must  ultimately  receive,  that  he  may  be  fitted  for  his 
lofty  office! 

Our  little  Prince  soon  learned  to  be  big  enough  and 
wise  enough  to  take  interest  in  sterner  things  than  the 
bleating  of  his  toy -lamb  and  the  antics  of  an  ex- 
ceedingly woolly  puppy — lamentably  oblivious  of  all 
the  rules  of  Court  etiquette  —  which  was  one  of  his 
most  precious  possessions.  The  time  came  when  he  no 
longer  curled  himself  up  in  the  arms  of  his  nurse  like  a 
frozen  robin  during  the  half-hour  or  so  of  his  enforced 
airings  in  the  snowy  desolation  of  a  bitter  Berlin  winter, 
but  marched  boldly  forth  with  a  most  amusing  imita- 
tion of  the  guard's  "goose-step"  or  tried  to  keep  up  with 
his  doting  grandfather,  his  small,  golden  head  barely 
reaching  that  handsome  giant's  knee. 

A  giant  indeed!  A  kindly,  handsome  giant,  with  fine, 
regular  features  and  a  hearty,  open-air  complexion.  A 
genial -tempered,  clean-minded  giant,  who  did  not  de- 
vour little  children,  but  adored  them — especially  this 
one  —  and  who  knew  to  perfection  the  difficult  art 
of  putting  himself  "a  la  portee"  of  his  little  compan- 
ion. 

During  those  delightful  walks  the  boy  would  raise  his 
eyes,  aglow  with  an  admiring  smile,  to  the  grand,  im- 
perial figure  towering  above  him,  while  he,  the  charming 
giant,  so  fond  of  babies  and  of  flowers,  smiled  too  in  a 
tender,  proud  sort  of  a  way,  and  pointed  out  to  his  little 

IS 


IMPERATOR   ET    REX 

companion  all  that  seemed  of  a  nature  to  attract  his 
childish  fancy. 

Nothing,  however,  pleased  him  so  completely  as 
when  the  huge  sentries  on  guard  at  the  palace  gates 
presented  arms  to  him,  for  he  was  already  a  passionate 
enthusiast  about  things  military.  Such  inclinations  are 
bred  in  the  bone,  and  there  is  no  getting  rid  of  them. 
Anybody  wearing  a  uniform  appeared  to  the  tiny  Prince 
as  if  surrounded  by  a  nimbus  of  gold-dust  and  pearl- 
dust,  and  he  would  throw  back  his  shoulders,  stiffen 
his  supple  limbs,  and  achieve  a  very  commendable 
counterfeit  of  the  trooper's  manner  whenever  he  walked 
out  with  his  highly  amused  grandfather. 

Soon  many  dim  things  were  to  become  rather  violent- 
ly and  painfully  clear  to  the  Royal  Boy,  many  others 
were  to  entirely  change  their  aspect  and  adjust  them- 
selves in  new  combinations,  many  more  that  had  seemed 
pleasant  and  enticing  were  to  assume  a  rather  alarming 
significance  and  importance,  and  would  shake  him  with 
tumultuous  thoughts  and  feelings,  but  of  soldiering  he 
never  got  tired  or  disillusioned,  which  was  a  mercy, 
since  to  an  exuberant,  expansive,  warm,  sunny  nature 
like  his  there  were  too  many  threatening  shadows  in 
that  grim,  glum,  Spartan  process  which  is  called  the 
training  of  a  Hohenzollern,  not  to  make  an  occasional 
sun-ray  desirable. 

Soon,  too,  the  baby-heart  was  destined  to  swell  in  turn 
with  surprise,  grief,  resentment,  despair,  pride,  and  hope, 
but  his  fervent  affection  for  the  army  never  for  an  in- 
stant swerved  from  the  height  it  had  attained  at  a 
bound  as  soon  as  he  could  walk.  "  De  tons  temps"  this 
feeling  has  been  even  more  than  mere  affection,  for 
there  was  something  of  himself  in  it,  something  poig- 
nantly, intimately  personal,  and  it  is  still  so  to-day. 

To  receive  military  honors,  to  have  the  sentinels  pre- 
16 


PORTRAIT     AXI)     AUTOGRAPH     OF     PRINCE     WILLIAM     AT     THE 
TIME    OF    HIS    ENROLMENT    IN    THE    ARMY 


IMPERATOR   ET    REX 

sent  arms  to  him,  was,  as  I  have  already  stated,  one  of 
his  keenest  and  earliest  joys,  and  with  a  view  of  hast- 
ening that  proud  sensation  the  child  on  more  than  one 
occasion  escaped  from  his  nursery,  even  before  his  toi- 
let was  completed,  to  run  down  the  palace  steps  and 
confront  the  sentries  at  their  post  with  a  smile  seeming- 
ly all  innocence,  but  possessing  an  undergleam  of  chal- 
lenge in  its  quality. 

Fixedly,  intently  he  would  look  at  them  for  a  moment, 
then  all  at  once  the  dimples  about  his  rosebud  mouth 
would  narrow,  and  a  ringing  little  laugh  cleave  the  fresh 
morning  air,  as,  having  received  the  due  of  a  Hohen- 
zollern  Prince,  the  mischievous  rogue  scampered  up- 
stairs to  encounter  the  ominous  frowns  of  his  dismayed 
attendants. 

It  must  have  been  difficult  to  be  severe  with  a  little 
creature  whose  eyes  darkened  so  pathetically  and  wist- 
fully when  he  was  scolded,  but  nurses  and  governesses 
are  proverbially  cross-grained,  and  the  melting  eyes  dep- 
recating censure,  and  beseeching  indulgence,  were  pow- 
erless at  last  to  avert  a  grim  catastrophe. 

His  Royal  Highness,  the  Crown  Prince,  was  informed 
of  his  son  and  heir's  delinquencies,  and  upon  the  very 
next  occasion  when  the  embryo  general,  profiting  by  a 
momentary  relaxation  of  surveillance,  stole  away  like 
a  thief  in  the  night,  and  in  further  emulation  of  those 
gentry,  shoeless,  to  go  in  quest  of  the  honors  due  his 
rank,  an  ignominious  disappointment  became  his  por- 
tion. 

It  was  a  wondrous  spring  morning;  a  shower  had  fallen 
during  the  night  and  the  air  was  alive  with  the  hum- 
ming of  bees,  the  bold  zigzags  of  swooping  butterflies, 
and  the  almost  imperceptible  tinkle  of  crystalline  drops 
falling  from  the  glittering  boughs  into  the  fragrant  bowls 
of  the  flowers  beneath  them,  while  all  around  were 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

wafted  secret  and  delicious  essences  distilled  by  the 
clean,  new  earth  and  the  green  things  growing  in  it. 

The  two  sentinels  at  their  post  looked  like  any  other 
heavy  bodies,  slow  and  circumspect  and  awe-inspiring, 
as  they  rhythmically  paced  up  and  down,  but  contrary 
to  time-honored  usages  they  held  their  course  imper- 
turbably  and  took  no  notice  whatsoever  of  the  trem- 
ulous little  white  figure  standing  above  them. 

The  Baby  Prince  stared  -for  a  matter  of  some  seconds, 
his  level,  fair  brows  knitted  together,  his  lips  parted, 
and  many  overpowering  emotions  concentrated  in  the 
spasmodic  clinching  and  unclinching  of  the  tiny  hand 
which  had  been  half  raised  in  readiness  for  the  return 
salute. 

The  great  blue  eyes  flickered  anxiously,  the  rhythmi- 
cal beating  of  the  lids  heroically  keeping  back  rising 
tears,  and  one  adept  in  deciphering  such  signs  might 
have  read  three  or  four  separate  meanings  there — - 
boundless  amazement,  a  sort  of  vague  terror,  a  pro- 
found humiliation,  an  absolute  incapability  of  com- 
prehending why  a  noble  Prince  of  the  Reigning  House 
should  be  thus  publicly  insulted,  and  last,  but  not  least, 
an  overwhelming  sorrow. 

Poor  little  shoeless  Prince,  the  lesson  was  almost  too 
hard  to  bear!  Violently,  with  a  sort  of  catch  in  his 
throat,  he  turned,  and,  his  cheeks  the  color  of  flame, 
his  blue  eyes  flashing,  he  fled,  racing  up  the  broad,  low 
steps  and  the  wide  corridors  with  the  rapidity  of  a  train 
of  burning  powder,  his  curls  flying  behind  him,  and  his 
tiny  stockinged  feet  never  slackening  their  extraordinary 
speed  until  with  a  last  agonized  bound  he  flung  himself 
straight  into  his  father's  arms. 

"I  am  disgraced!"  he  gasped;  "the  sentries  refused  to 
salute  me!  They  would  not  even  look  at  me!  Oh! 
oh!  oh!"  he  concluded  in  three  separate  piteous  notes 

18 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

of  anguish,  giving  away  at  last  to  a  perfect  storm  of 
despairing  sobs. 

Gently  but  very  firmly  the  Crown  Prince  unclasped 
the  arms  cast  convulsively  about  his  neck,  and,  looking 
keenly  at  the  weeping  child,  asked  with  well -assumed 
severity : 

"Are  you  dressed  in  a  fashion  to  exact  respect  and 
recognition,  my  son?" 

Incapable  of  mastering  his  voice  sufficiently  to  an- 
swer, the  culprit  nodded  his  head  deprecatingly  —  he 
just  then  looked  upon  life,  no  doubt,  as  upon  a  thing 
which  had  beguiled  him  with  false  promises,  wronged 
and  defrauded  him  sorely. 

"No  sentinel,"  continued  the  Crown  Prince  oracu- 
larly, "is  permitted  to  render  the  honors  to  a  Prince 
who  is  not  dressed  from  head  to  foot" — here  he  glanced 
significantly  at  the  little  pale -blue  socks  now  quite 
covered  with  dust — "as  prescribed  by  the  regulations. 
"Go  and  finish  your  toilet,  and  do  not  leave  your  apart- 
ments again  in  so  unseemly  a  fashion!" 

During  this  discourse  the  boy's  sobs  had  ceased;  his 
soft  eyes  still  swimming  with  enormous  tears  had  wan- 
dered to  the  window — the  tall  window  with  its  view  of 
the  "  Courd'Honneur"  in  front  of  which  the  gigantic  sen- 
tries paced  up  and  down  so  majestically;  then  slowly 
he  turned  them  once  more  upon  his  father.  They  were 
immensely  serious,  intensely  concerned,  and  in  their 
farthest  recesses  still  lurked  the  shame  which  had  over- 
come him,  as,  heaving  a  tremulous  sigh,  and  without 
noticing  that  there  was  a  sort  of  grave  relenting  in  the 
looks  now  bent  upon  him,  he  turned  on  his  silk-shod 
heels  with  admirable  military  precision  and  moved 
towards  the  door  without  attempting  to  excuse  his  mis- 
demeanor, but  evidently  bent  on  immediate  obedience 
as  a  token  of  repentance. 

19 


1MPERATOR    ET    REX 

Ah!  poor  little  Embryo  Emperor!  He  must  have  had 
a  sense  of  having  stepped  out  of  a  world  that  he  knew 
by  heart,  and  which  had  hitherto  been  very  pleasant, 
into  a  stuffy,  threadbare  region  from  which  the  gilt  had 
been  ruthlessly  rubbed  off,  and  which  from  minute  to 
minute  would  open  up  new  perspectives,  bring  to  pass 
novel  and  painful  surprises. 

Indeed,  from  that  very  day  his  life  seemed  to  grow 
passing  strange  and  intricate,  and  knotted  about  him 
like  the  threads  of  a  spider's  web  that  a  bad  fairy  has 
mischievously  entangled  around  a  rosebud,  for  he  had 
entered  upon  that  solemn  and  portentous  period  when 
the  training  of  a  Hohenzollern  Prince  begins,  and  which, 
ever  since  the  time  when  Frederick  the  Great  had  his 
education  beaten  into  him  by  no  gentle  hands,  has  been 
Spartan  enough  to  outdo  Sparta  itself  in  its  palmiest 
days. 

Fortunately  the  little  Prince  was  the  worthy  de- 
scendant of  a  valiant  race,  and  at  the  same  time  a  true 
child  of  that  Germany  where  discipline  is  a  deep-rooted 
principle.  His  love  of  all  things  military  helped  him, 
too,  because  he  saw  all  the  rest  in  relation  to  them,  and 
translated  everything  in  terms  befitting  a  soldier.  The 
whole  universe,  indeed,  was  peopled  for  him  with  march- 
ing armies,  and  when  he  walked  in  the  palace  gardens 
I  doubt  not  that  he  caught  glimpses  of  the  god  Mars 
striding  through  the  trees,  and  heard  vaguely  the  sound 
of  trumpets  and  of  clarions  pulsating  through  the  air. 

In  many  ways,  however,  the  child  was  becoming  too 
serious,  he  used  his  mind  too  much,  and,  although  his 
primordial  delicacy  had  given  way  to  a  mere  frail  lithe- 
ness,  indicating  no  real  physical  weakness,  yet  he  gave 
the  impression  of  being  made  of  too  fine  and  dainty  a 
clay  to  be  thus  early  subjected  to  so  much  mental  and 
physical  exercise.  He  was,  nevertheless,  by  no  man- 

20 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

ner  of  means  deficient  in  the  instincts  of  childhood,  and 
enjoyed  a  game  of  play  as  well  as  any  boy  of  his  tender 
age,  but  even  these  periods  of  recreation  he  managed 
to  turn  into  very  visions  of  heroic  romance  brought  to 
life,  in  spite  of  his  possessing  a  very  solid  and  well-bal- 
anced little  head-piece. 

It  was  a  very  amusing  sight  to  watch  the  little  lad  of 
six  being  put  through  his  paces  by  tall  Drill-Sergeant 
Klee,  with  all  the  "  raideur  "  and  precision  that  estimable 
martinet  would  have  used  towards  an  ordinary  recruit. 
Pink  with  the  quick  rubbing  after  his  cold  tub,  his  fair 
locks  smoothly  brushed,  Prince  Willy  regarded  his 
imposing  instructor  with  absorbing  attention,  and 
imitated  his  every  gesture  in  a  magnificently  vivid 
fashion. 

A  difficulty  stoically  encountered  is  a  difficulty  al- 
ready half  vanquished,  and  truly  this  child  looked  like 
one  who  would  not  easily  accept  defeat,  for  within  him 
the  blood  coursed  swiftly  and  the  spirit  burned  alertly 
and  vigorously.  He  was  naturally  at  times  wayward 
and  provoking,  as  all  children  are  prone  to  be,  but  he 
was  always  generous  and  loyal  like  those  in  whom  there 
is  race  as  well  as  nerve  and  true  temperament. 

A  couple  of  years  later  Captain  von  Schrotter,  of  the 
Guard  Artillery,  was  appointed  as  military  tutor  to  him 
and  to  his  brother  Henry,  the  future  "Sailor  Prince," 
who  was  now  old  enough  to  be  his  inseparable  com- 
panion. 

From  henceforth  their  joint  studies  became  a  serious 
matter  indeed,  although  the  younger  Prince  could  not 
easily  be  made  to  take  a  gloomy  view  of  anything,  for 
he  was  one  of  those  rare  people  who  find  life  a  joy,  and 
most  fellow-beings  a  cause  of  contentment  and  satis- 
faction, his  cheerfulness  and  gayety  shining  like  an  in- 
ward sun,  by  no  means  subject  to  the  dire  changes  from 

21 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

fair  to  foul  weather  which  mark  our  earthly  pilgrim- 
age. He  was  the  right  sort,  was  Prince  Henry,  and  the 
passage  of  years  has  not  succeeded  in  altering  him  in 
that  respect. 

Up  with  the  larks  in  summer,  when  the  wonderful 
morning  air  was  still  keen  and  light  and  virginal,  the  two 
Royal  boys  were  in  the  habit  of  strolling  for  an  hour  at 
random  in  the  park,  their  thoughts  as  sparkling  as  the 
awakening  world,  as  brisk  and  cheery  as  their  own  im- 
mediate environments. 

Their  favorite  resort  was  the  "  Jungfernsee  "  at  Pots- 
4ajn,  and  at  that  early  hour,  when  the  sun  had  not  yet 
dried  the  millions  of  liquid  gems  sparkling  on  bush  and 
grass,  they  would  canoe,  playing  at  Red  Indians — one  of 
Prince  William's  dearest  games — lying  in  wait  for  each 
other  with  long  spears  made  of  bamboo,  or  gently  beat- 
ing the  water  with  the  flat  of  their  paddles,  as  a  signal 
to  the  imaginary  braves  ambushed  behind  a  screen  of 
ferns,  or  stooping  with  paddles  poised  hearkening  to  the 
stealthy  approach  of  hostile  tribes  quite  as  imaginary. 
At  other  times  they  would  slip  out  of  their  canoes, 
and,  boarding  the  miniature  frigate  "Royal  Luise" — a 
twenty -ton  cutter  presented  in  1832  to  Frederick  Will- 
iam III.  by  King  George  IV.  of  England,  which  to  this 
day  is  the  first  training-ship  of  every  Hohenzollern 
Princelet — and,  standing  upon  her  almond-white  deck 
above  the  runes  of  flame  written  by  the  sun  on  the  trans- 
lucent surface  of  the  lake,  they  would  arouse  all  the 
neighboring  echoes  by  firing  her  small  cannons,  the  ordi- 
nary thunderous  charge  of  lead  being  replaced  by  huge 
horse-chestnuts  collected  throughout  the  autumn  for 
that  purpose. 

Prince  William,  the  bravest  of  small  figures,  in  his 
trim  blue-and-white  sailor  suit,  with  the  tiny  anchors 
embroidered  on  his  wide  collar  gleaming  brightly,  was, 

22 


ON  THE  JUNGFERNSEE THE  FOUNDER  OF  GERMANY  S 

NAVAL  POWER 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

of  course,  captain  of  the  "  Royal  Luise,"  and  a  very  ex- 
cellent commanding  officer  he  made. 

This  was  a  sweet,  happy  time,  when  the  two  lads,  in 
extravagantly  high  spirits,  laughed  over  the  most  in- 
different trivialities,  their  absolute,  if  but  momentary, 
freedom  being  the  cause  for  a  swift  mounting  of  their 
spiritual  barometers. 

The  beauty  of  the  morning  sun,  the  crisp  chill  of  the 
lake  water  in  which  they  loved  to  dip  their  hands,  the 
solemn  and  splendid  solitude  of  the  deserted  gardens 
and  lawns,  and,  above  all,  the  calm  sheet  of  blue  be- 
neath them  mirroring  the  boundless  turquoise  vault 
overhead,  made  them  feel  as  blithe  and  as  happy  as 
the  goldfinches  and  robins  vigorously  ducking,  flutter- 
ing, and  preening  their  soft  plumage  amid  jets  of  pris- 
matic spray  where  they  bathed  in  little  rock-formed 
pools,  a  hundred  yards  or  so  away  from  them  on  the 
banks  of  the  "  Jungfernsee." 

After  such  exploits  the  thoughts  of  those  two  little 
Princes  were  disposed  to  go  wandering,  and  when  they 
entered  their  joint  school-room,  they  were  apt  to  give  but 
a  veiled  and  fugitive  attention  to  the  dry-as-dust  mat- 
ters upon  which  they  were  rather  tersely  bidden  to 
bend  their  whole  minds.  We  have  all  "  been  there  be- 
fore"! But  that  is  where  the  superior  forcefulness  of 
that  famous  Hohenzollern  training  came  in,  for  all  laxity 
was  grimly  excluded  from  its  make-up,  whatever  the 
cause  thereof  might  be. 

It  was  hard,  to  be  sure,  when  a  great  rutilant  sun  was 
swung  high  in  heaven,  when  no  leaf  trembled  on  the 
green  trees,  and  when  the  songs  of  thousands  of  birds 
bubbled  liquidly  in  through  the  open  windows,  to  set- 
tle down  to  work,  but  so  it  had  to  be,  and  so  it  was. 

Heavily  frowning,  and  with  characteristic  determina- 
tion, the  future  Monarch  would  wrestle  uncomplaining- 

23 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

ly  with  unattractive  figures,  with  difficult  problems, 
and  with  abstruse  questions  that  continually  tripped 
and  threw  him,  although  his  instructors,  distinguished 
men  one  and  all,  made  a  point  of  putting  these  things 
to  him  with  great  lucidity  and  patience. 

At  length,  at  the  beginning  of  one  particularly  ink- 
stained  and  arithmetical  month,  there  appeared  upon 
the  scene  the  man  whose  influence  was  to  be  all-impor- 
tant upon  the  younger  years  of  William  II.  I  have  in 
saying  this  named  Dr.JHmz^e^gr. 

In  appearance  the  above-named  pedagogue  was  not 
particularly  prepossessing;  tall  and  spare,  with  a  mouth 
which  gave  the  impression  of  secrecy  and  tightness,  and 
eyes  of  a  singular  vagueness  of  expression,  yet  his  man- 
ners were  those  of  a  man  reserved  but  competent,  and 
it  was  an  unutterable  relief  to  the  Prince's  parents  to 
confide  him  to  such  adequate  hands. 

It  was  during  a  visit  which  the  Crown  Prince  and 
Crown  Princess  made  to  their  intimate  friends,  Count 
Goertz,  President  of  the  Hessian  House  of  Lords,  and 
to  his  Countess  (nee  Princess  von  Sayn-Wittgenstein), 
at  their  beautiful  country  -  seat  of  Schlitz,  in  Hesse, 
that  they  first  met  the  Professor,  who  had  for  a  num- 
ber of  years  been  tutor  to  the  Count's  own  son,  and  who 
was  destined  to  become  in  a  great  many  respects  the 
German  counterpart  of  M.  Pobiedonotzow,  the  illus- 
trious mentor  of  Czar  Alexander  II.  of  Russia. 

His  treatment  of  Prince  William  was  shrewd  and 
prompt,  for,  judging  rapidly  and  correctly,  he  saw  that 
any  undue  severity  would  not  answer  with  the  fiery  nat- 
ure he  had  to  deal  with,  and,  although  sorely  handi- 
capped by  the  peremptory  instructions  given  to  him  to 
the  effect  that  his  young  charge's  education  would  have 
to  be  absolutely  terminated  at  eighteen,  and  that  at 
that  period  he  must  have  become,  at  whatever  cost,  the 

24 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

most  accomplished  and  the  most  learned  personage  in 
Germany  —  a  modest  demand,  one  must  confess  —  he 
made  a  brilliant  success  of  the  heavy  task  imposed  upon 
him,  and  his  "  maniere  de  faire"  has  been  certainly 
more  than  justified  by  its  results. 

It  may  be  said  of  Dr.  Hinzpeter  that,  oddly  enough, 
he  had  then  many  friends  and  no  enemies ;  to  his  credit 
be  it  noted,  also,  that  he  was  too  frank  by  nature  to  be 
a  toady,  and  that  his  opinions  were  generally  expressed, 
when  he  found  it  worth  his  while  to  express  them  at 
all — which  was  rare — in  an  absolutely  fearless  and  even 
bluff  manner.  Indeed,  when  once  interested  in  a  sub- 
ject he  was  apt  to  become  extraordinarily  enthusiastic 
and  eloquent,  to  the  point  almost  of  downright'violence, 
which  peculiarity  was  an  overwhelming  surprise  to 
those  who  knew  him  only  as  a  quiet,  retiring,  shy,  and 
absent-minded  pedagogue,  sunk  to  the  very  eyebrows 
in  science. 

One  may  add  that  age  has  brought  no  chill  to  his 
blood,  no  dulling  of  those  capacities  so  often  wrongly 
attributed  to  youth  alone.  His  rusty,  professorial 
black  still  covers  the  heart  of  a  boy,  the  hot  brain  of  a 
youthful  enthusiast  burns  yet  beneath  his  silvering  hair, 
and  he  follows  his  erstwhile  pupil  with  an  approving 
eye,  although  he  has  long  ceased  to  be  his  Imperial 
Master's  political  adviser,  and  contents  himself  with 
being  the  sincerest  of  his  friends  and  well-wishers. 

But  to  return  to  the  time  when  he  first  assumed  his 
role  as  tutor. 

Immediately,  and  almost  without  giving  himself  a 
chance  to  breathe,  he  became  the  comrade  of  his  Royal 
charges  in  the  full  acceptation  of  the  word.  He  entered 
into  the  spirit  of  their  games,  and  in  play-hours  accept- 
ed their  various  incarnations,  whether  they  represented 
Red  Indians,  Crusaders  armed  with  wooden  sabres,  or 

25 


IMPERATOR   ET    REX 

Admirals  with  paper  hats,  as  most  solemnly  real,  and 
from  that  very  moment  Prince  William  began  to  ex- 
pand. 

This  change  was  the  result  of  no  violent  revulsion,  but 
of  the  kindly  impulse  given  to  his  whole  training  by 
the  wise  Westphalian  Doctor,  which  caused  him  to 
thrive  with  marvellous  alacrity,  both  mentally  and 
physically.  Dr.  Hinzpeter  had,  it  cannot  be  denied, 
the  gift  of  creating  a  pleasing  and  soothing  atmosphere 
about  his  impressionable  pupil,  who  felt  that  he  was  ap- 
preciated and  taken  seriously,  and  he  enjoyed  this  feel- 
ing exceedingly,  for  even  those  who  most  love  excite- 
ment and  stimulus  crave  for  the  occasional  unbending 
of  the  bow,  when  the  soul  within  them  obtains  in- 
telligent companionship  and  a  due  amount  of  praise. 


CHAPTER  II 

TIME  flew  on  and  the  blunder  which  cost  France  the 
loss  of  her  pre-eminence  as  a  leading  nation  was  per- 
petrated. Months  succeeded  months,  and  the  little 
Princes  looked  forward  to  nothing  with  greater  eager- 
ness than  to  the  hurried  letters  written  home  by  their 
grandfather  and  their  father,  from  beside  the  bivouac- 
fires,  their  young  hearts  beating  high  with  pride  and 
delight  at  the  news  of  victory  after  victory,  and  their 
thoughts  one  vast  regret  that  they  had  not  yet  attained 
the  age  to  wear  a  real  sword  and  do  a  man's  work. 

These  months  of  suspense  did  much  to  ripen  Prince 
William  and  to  still  further  develop  his  passion  for  sol- 
diering. 

Winter  settled  down  upon  Germany  with  its  cold, 
grim  silence,  and  the  twelve -year-old  boy's  impatience 
became  intolerable.  Greedily  he  read  the  despatches, 
and  could  hardly  be  induced  to  absent  himself  even  for 
an  hour  when  news  was  expected  from  the  seat  of  war. 
That  of  the  capitulation  of  Paris  reached  him  as  he  and 
his  brother,  weary  of  this  perpetual  watching,  had  gone 
to  skate  on  the  palace  lake  in  the  steel-and-silver  still- 
ness of  a  windless  winter  afternoon.  Everything  glim- 
mered as  with  a  soft,  internal  lustre,  each  spray  and 
sprig  on  the  ice-bound  shore  was  turned  into  a  crystal 
spear  menacing  the  rack  of  torn,  snow-laden  clouds 
overhead.  The  sport  was  excellent,  the  ice  perfect,  and 
the  children  little  heeded  the  menace  of  the  heavens, 
for  hither  and  thither  they  flitted,  skimming  like  swal- 
3  27 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

lows  on  the  gleaming  surface,  where  the  sharp  blades 
of  their  skates  left  long,  curved  scratches  of  a  matt 
whiteness. 

Suddenly  they  noticed  that  the  faithful  Dr.  Hinz- 
peter  was  beckoning  to  them  from  the  shore,  and  they 
rushed  headlong  towards  him  in  such  breathless  haste 
that  for  a  few  seconds  they  could  not  even  ask  their 
tutor  what  he  had  called  them  for. 

As  soon  as  he  grasped  the  momentous  news,  how- 
ever, Prince  William  began  to  dance  with  joy. 

"Oh,  how  glorious!"  he  exclaimed;  "how  very,  very 
happy  I  am!"  He  broke  off  short,  for  a  hand  was  laid 
on  his  arm,  and  Dr.  Hinzpeter  stood  tall  and  dark 
over  him. 

"They  have  fought  bravely  and  endured  heroically 
in  vain,  those  poor  people  who  have  just  capitulated," 
he  said,  gently;  "our  joy  is  their  despair — do  not  forget 
that,  Prince  William." 

The  boy  made  no  answer,  and  lowered  his  eyes,  in 
which  swift  tears  had  risen.  This  was  the  first  time 
that  the  other  side  of  the  question  had  struck  him,  and 
his  warm  heart  responded  at  once  to  the  appeal.  To 
triumph  over  a  fallen  foe  seemed  suddenly  mean  and 
contemptible  to  him,  and  very  soberly  did  he  walk  back 
to  the  palace,  his  bonny  face  unusually  grave  as  he 
thought  of  the  women  and  children,  the  sick  and  wound- 
ed who  for  nearly  seven  months  had  suffered  a  slow 
agony  within  the  walls  of  the  besieged  capital  of  France. 

All  his  vividly  awakened  sympathies  could  not,  how- 
ever, dampen  the  delight  he  experienced  when  his 
grandfather,  at  the  head  of  Germany's  victorious  troops, 
re-entered  Berlin,  and  when  he,  Prince  William,  was 
allowed  to  join  the  dazzling  procession  of  Sovereign 
Princes,  Great  Captains,  and  Crown  Vassals  forming  the 
train  of  the  recently  proclaimed  Emperor. 

28 


IMPERATOR   ET    REX 

Mounted  on  a  little,  speckled  pony,  the  Royal  lad  rode 
along,  feeling  himself  indeed  a  Prince  and  a  soldier.  On 
his  tenth  birthday  he  had,  like  all  other  scions  of  the 
House  of  Hohenzollern,  been  appointed  Lieutenant  of 
the  First  Regiment  of  Foot -Guards;  he  had  also  re- 
ceived the  order  of  the  Black  Eagle,  and  on  that  ex- 
quisitely fresh  and  brilliant  morning  of  the  i6th  of  June, 
1871,  as  he  passed  beneath  the  flower-laden  "  Branden- 
burger-Thor  "  on  his  quaint  little  steed,  between  his  father 
and  the  Grand  Duke  of  Baden,  his  whole  being  thrilled 
with  unutterable  pride  and  joy. 

Many  a  kind  and  loving  eye  was  bent  in  approval  upon 
the  gallant  little  figure,  many  a  strong,  manly  voice  was 
raised  to  greet  him  quite  particularly  with  a  resounding 
"Hoch!"  and  many  a  stalwart  heart  heaved  with  loyal 
emotion  as  this  small  grandson  of  a  conquering  grand- 
father passed,  his  rounded  cheeks  glowing,  his  blue  eyes 
lighted  up,  and  his  head  held  erect  with  intense  grati- 
fication. 

High-spirited  and  impetuous,  overeager  and  thought- 
less at  times,  still  Prince  William  chose  the  good  and 
rejected  the  evil  almost  instinctively;  he  began  also  to 
take  a  deeper  interest  in  his  studies,  and,  being  remark- 
ably gifted,  he  went  apace  with  great  rapidity,  aston- 
ishing his  professors  by  the  thoroughness  of  his  acquire- 
ment, and  the  clear  and  concise  manner  in  which  he 
took  hold  of  a  proposition  and  carried  it  promptly  to 
its  logical  end. 

The  lad  was  desperately  in  earnest  about  everything 
he  undertook,  and  a  careful  observer  could  notice  that 
however  quiet  and  precise  he  might  try  to  appear,  there 
was  an  almost  feverishly  intense  ardor  always  quiver- 
ing beneath  the  surface ;  but  he  looked  the  world  square- 
ly and  pluckily  in  the  face,  and  took  his  fences  straight 
whatever  happened. 

29 


IMPERATOR   ET   REX 

It  is  difficult  to  say  whether  Prince  William  was  glad 
or  sorry  when  he  was  suddenly  told  that,  in  contradiction 
to  all  the  Hohenzollern  traditions,  he,  the  Heir  Presump- 
tive, was  on  the  point  of  being  sent  to  a  public  school. 
The  excessively  military  twist  given  to  his  education 
had  certainly  prepared  him  for  passive  obedience,  but 
he  knew  without  the  possibility  of  a  doubt  that  his  be- 
loved grandfather  was  opposed  to  the  project,  that 
Prince  Bismarck — who  to  him  was  the  beau-ideal  of  a 
soldier — also  vehemently  combated  it,  and  therefore  it 
may  be  safely  taken  for  granted  that  pleasure  was  not 
paramount  among  the  young  fellow's  sensations  at  the 
time. 

The  whole  affair  caused  no  end  of  disturbance  at 
Court,  and  a  marked  and  most  ungenial  aloofness  was 
observed  to  exist  for  a  while  between  the  opposite 
factions;  but  the  next  best  thing  to  winning  is  to  know 
when  you  are  beaten,  and  Emperor  William  I.,  although 
vexed  with  himself  for  being  circumvented  and  for  final- 
ly yielding,  yet  never  allowed  his  darling  grandson,  the 
pride  of  his  heart,  to  quite  gauge  the  extent  of  the 
pain  inflicted  upon  himself  by  that  new  departure  in 
Hohenzollern  training.  This  prudence,  however,  did 
not  prevent  the  Prince's  heart  from  being  momentarily 
hardened  and  chilled,  for  he  adored  his  kindly  grand- 
father and  abhorred  the  thought  of  his  having  been 
overruled,  as  also  that  of  being  permanently  separated 
from  him. 

The  process  of  thought  of  a  boy  of  fourteen  is  some- 
what curious,  not  to  say  obscure,  and  the  results  dis- 
concerting. At  that  age,  too,  one  is  not  diplomatic,  es- 
pecially when  for  the  first  time  in  one's  life  one  becomes 
conscious  of  a  rift  in  the  lute  of  family  affections,  and 
thus  did  a,  comparatively  speaking,  unimportant  in- 
cident cause  the  birth  of  a  state  of  things  which 

30 


IMPERATOR   ET    REX 

later  on  was  to  bear  much  fruit  that  was  bitter  exceed- 
ingly. 

It  must  be  confessed  that  being  given  the  eminently 
feudal  spirit  which  in  those  days  still  reigned  in  Ger- 
many, the  task  of  the  teachers  at  the  Cassel  Gymnasium, 
which  had  been  selected  for  the  Royal  lad's  d£but  at 
school,  was,  at  "  prima-vista,"  a  difficult  one;  but,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  it  turned  out  to  be  the  easiest  in  the 
world,  thanks  to  Prince  William  and  Prince  Henry  them- 
selves, and  thanks  also  to  the  tact  and  wisdom  dis- 
played by  Dr.  Hinzpeter  during  the  three  years  which 
they  passed  together  at  Cassel. 

It  had  been  made  clear  to  the  tutor  that  his  two 
pupils  were  on  no  account  to  be  treated  otherwise  than 
in  the  most  democratic  fashion,  and  that  in  no  way 
was  he  to  allow  them  to  be  placed  on  a  higher  plane 
than  their  school-mates.  Furthermore,  they  were  not 
to  be  addressed  as  "  Royal  Highnesses,"  and,  in  one  word, 
must  be  forced  to  win  any  distinction  they  might  covet, 
but  were  not  to  profit  by  those  which  were  theirs  by 
birth. 

In  itself  the  plan  was  undoubtedly  a  good  one,  for 
so  long  as  they  were  to  mix  with  the  inmates  of  a  public 
institution  they  necessarily  in  fairness  and  justice  could 
not  make  use  of  any  birth  privileges,  but  it  is  not  sur- 
prising that  those  who  knew  the  lay  of  the  land,  and 
especially  the  sensitive,  nervous,  and  diffident  nature  of 
Prince  William,  should  have  dreaded,  and  with  good 
reason,  such  an  ordeal  for  him. 

The  Royal  lad  himself  arrived  at  Cassel  in  a  ferment 
of  expectation,  checkered  with  a  multitude  of  varying 
hopes  and  fears.  The  mere  exhilaration  of  the  unknown 
boiled  up  in  effervescence  within  him  at  one  moment, 
while  again  an  anguish  of  self -distrust  shook  him  im- 
mediately afterwards. 

31 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

What  if,  after  all,  he  should  prove  to  be  a  failure  ?  At 
the  thought  little  cold  waves  stole  down  his  back,  for 
he  could  not  help  picturing  to  himself  the  awful  shame 
of  it!  These  vague  forebodings  and  the  mordancy  of 
such  anticipations  were  wellnigh  unbearable  to  the 
proud,  diffident  child,  and  Dr.  Hinzpeter,  watching  him 
keenly,  had  to  bring  out  all  his  artillery  of  sagacious 
fascination  to  disperse  the  brooding,  the  dull,  vague 
aches  of  regret,  and  the  dreary  premonitions  obscuring 
the  mind  he  was  there  to  guide  and  to  train. 

He  hoped,  of  course,  that  the  actuality  would  be  far 
less  unpleasant  than  the  anticipation,  and  that  when 
Prince  William  found  himself  really  face  to  face  with  the 
situation  he  dreaded,  his  fears  would  disappear  as  com- 
pletely as  a  blink  of  summer  lightning;  yet  these  hopes 
might  be  utterly  at  fault,  and  the  Doctor  was  therefore 
nearly  as  anxious  as  his  young  charge  when  they  reached 
their  destination.  What  would  come  to  pass  there  in 
the  next  few  months  he  strenuously  forbore  to  conject- 
ure, for  it  was  his  business  to  keep  his  brain  cool  and 
collected  and  to  avoid  all  thoughts  which  might  bias 
him  one  way  or  the  other. 

In  the  meanwhile  Prince  William  had  made  an  obvious 
call  on  his  resolution,  conquered  all  signs  of  his  terrible 
uneasiness,  and  faced  the  music  like  the  brave  little  man 
he  was. 

It  seems  a  generally  accepted  theory  that  William  II. 
considers  himself  to  be  the  most  important  personage  in 
creation,  a  being  around  whom  revolve  the  world  and 
the  stars  and  all  space — at  least  so  we  read  in  the  vitri- 
olic comments  of  the  public  press  of  every  shade  and 
description.  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  it  should  have 
occurred  to  so  few  people  that  the  Kaiser's  nature  is 
too  subtle  and  complicated  a  one  to  be  judged  by  sur- 
face appearances  or  by  the  impulses  of  a  moment. 

32 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

Even  in  those  days  at  Cassel  there  was  a  curious  sort 
of  eagerness  in  Prince  William's  manner,  a  picturesque- 
ness  in  his  way  of  doing  things,  a  deep  sense  of  the 
pictorial  aspect  of  existence  which  was  somewhat  mis- 
leading, as  were  also  his  at  times  quick,  slightly  heed- 
less fashion  of  speech,  his  rather  high  timbre  of  voice, 
his  extreme  impressionability,  his  reckless  and  laughing 
disregard  of  all  danger. 

All  this  did  not  then,  and  does  not  now,  prevent  him 
from  feeling  things  very  strongly  and  being  very  far 
from  a  self-satisfied,  bumptious  person.  Then,  as  now, 
too,  he  was  one  of  those  fortunate  wayfarers  who  see 
their  road  clearly  before  them,  and  for  whom  the  bar- 
riers of  duty  and  honor  which  stand  on  both  sides  of 
the  path  have  no  gap  in  them  at  any  time. 

The  Gymnasium  at  Cassel  was  a  plain,  square,  stone 
building,  without  any  attempt  at  ornamentation,  and 
the  inside  was  quite  as  grim  and  forbidding  as  the  out- 
side. The  town  itself  was  dull  exceedingly,  but  Prince 
William  soon  made  the  discovery  that  places  and  sit- 
uations are  never  so  excellent  or  so  dreadful  as  we 
represent  them  to  ourselves  before  we  actually  reach 
them. 

A  new  life  had  begun  for  him,  a  quiet,  studious,  peace- 
ful life,  and  yet  not  devoid  of  that  disquietude  which  is 
the  inseparable  companion  of  all  ambition.  So  great 
was  this  ambition  that  at  first,  in  his  ardor  to  achieve 
success,  mere  outward  things  became  of  no  account. 
His  clothes,  which  were  mostly  shabby — in  accordance 
with  a  systematized  scheme  for  the  repression  of  vanity 
and  extravagance  and  the  encouragement  of  a  "whole- 
some" humility  —  troubled  him  not  in  the  least;  the 
necessity  of  stuffing  coal  into  the  stove  when  his  turn 
came  round  to  fulfil  this  homely  duty,  devolving  on 
each  of  the  boys  in  regular  rotation,  vexed  him  still  less ; 

33 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

nor  did  the  familiarity  of  his  fellow-students  ever  ex- 
cite his  indignation. 

During  the  cold  months,  he,  together  with  Prince 
Henry  and  Dr.  Hinzpeter,  lived  in  the  plain,  gloomy 
old  "  Furstenschloss ,"  a  place  as  unamiable  to  those  who 
gaze  at  it  from  without  as  it  is  chilling  and  deplorably 
depressing  to  those  who  have  the  misfortune  to  enter 
its  inhospitable  portals. 

It  was  furnished  in  a  heavy  and  ungracious  style,  and 
what  meagre  effort  at  embellishment  it  boasted  gave 
but  an  additional  frown  to  the  "  tout-ensemble  "  of  this 
once,  no  doubt,  very  brilliant "  Elector al-Residenz. ' '  Such 
an  abode  had  nothing  in  its  desolation  and  absence  of  any 
but  a  tarnished  and  threadbare  grandeur,  to  cheer  the 
heart  or  raise  the  spirit,  and  at  the  age  Prince  William 
was  then  one  cannot  be  absolutely  content  with  the 
mere  barren  sense  of  duty  done,  much  as  one  may  desire 
to  be  so.  It  cannot,  therefore,  be  doubted  that  he  at 
times  must  have  felt  the  void  and  wearisomeness  of  this 
sad  place,  especially  when  the  searching  winds  of  the 
harsh  German  autumn  began  to  beat  at  the  lofty,  iron- 
barred  casements  of  his  bare,  uncomfortable  rooms. 

In  the  early  spring,  fortunately,  matters  assumed  a 
more  cheerful  aspect,  for  as  soon  as  all  traces  of  snow 
and  of  frost  had  disappeared,  the  two  brothers  and  their 
faithful  tutor  quickly  left  the  little  capital  of  Hesse- 
Cassel,  to  take  up  their  quarters  at  Schloss  Wilhelms- 
hohe,  the  German  Versailles,  as  it  is  called. 

The  castle  stands  at  the  foot  of  a  broad  ridge  of  hills, 
peopled  with  companies  of  beautiful  trees;  all  around 
run  level  lawns  fringed  with  fragrant  flower-beds  of  great 
beauty;  and,  where  the  park  joins  the  gardens,  hedges 
of  clipped  bay  shed  a  healthy  perfume  upon  broad  turf 
seats,  where  Napoleon  III.,  during  his  captivity  there, 
used  occasionally  to  sit,  casting  a  melancholy  look  upon 

34 


IMPERATOR   ET    REX 

the  great  fountains,  which  in  the  days  when  Jerome  Bona- 
parte was  King  of  Westphalia  were  the  delight  of  that 
impromptu  Monarch's  heart. 

Prince  William's  passion  for  flowers  was  gratified  by 
the  loveliness  of  those  endless  spaces,  where  the  grass  was 
thick  with  the  brilliant  gold  of  daffodils,  the  straw  tints 
of  the  primrose,  the  rich  purples  and  delicate  mauves 
of  violets  and  anemones,  and  the  snowy  whiteness  of 
narcissi,  blossoming  in  their  millions  beneath  the  clus- 
tering boughs  of  Japanese  cherry,  pink  acacia,  labur- 
num and  lilac,  that  stretched  their  foam  of  delicate  col- 
oring all  over  the  park. 

He  and  Prince  Henry  stepped  there  into  the  sparkling 
coolness  of  the  young  day,  just  as  they  had  done  at 
Potsdam,  the  sunshine  from  without  meeting  the  sun- 
shine in  their  souls,  gladly  and  joyously,  with  a  thrill  of 
welcome.  But  like  a  monstrous  spider  spinning  its 
criss-cross  threads,  the  inexorable  "  Hohenzollern  train- 
ing" tirelessly  thickened  its  web  around  them,  drawing 
it  closer  and  closer  still,  although  during  these  summer 
months  Prince  William  hardly  thought  of  the  morrow, 
and  made  the  most  of  this  "  etape  "  before  buckling  on 
his  knapsack  for  good  and  aye. 

In  the  autumn,  when  the  weather  became  dull  and 
gray,  when  silvery  fogs  began  to  rise  from  the  lake  at 
Wilhelmshohe  and  trail  their  shimmering  folds  over 
the  little  river  Fulda,  the  Princely  Household  moved 
back  under  the  spreading  branches  of  the  secular  limes 
bordering  the  superb  avenue,  three  miles  long,  which 
leads  to  Cassel  and  the  winter-quarters  at  the  Electoral 
"  Furstenpalast." 

Not  without  regret  did  the  Prince  abandon  the  leafless 
woods  in  their  poetic  livery  of  golden  bronze  and  soft, 
silky  gray,  the  bare  fields  shivering  at  the  near  promise 
of  snow,  for,  like  all  true  lovers  of  the  country,  those 

35 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

clean-souled  ones  who  prefer  the  gentle  creaking  of 
moving  scythes,  the  ripple  of  running  water,  and  the 
singing  of  birds  to  the  rattle  and  the  murky  smoke  of 
crowded  streets,  he  understood  and  enjoyed  nature  in 
all  its  moods,  even  the  grimmest,  when  frost  and  ice  grip 
the  world  in  a  relentless  vise. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  give  an  accurate  conception 
of  the  kindness,  frankness,  and  friendliness  which  Prince 
William  displayed  throughout  his  sojourn  at  Cassel 
towards  his  school-fellows.  He  certainly  could  not  be 
accused  of  superciliousness  or  arrogance,  for  he  treated 
them  all,  whatever  their  birth  or  social  status,  with  a 
gentle  consideration  quite  above  praise,  making  no  dis- 
tinction between  them,  and  being  only  too  ready  to 
afford  them  any  pleasures  from  which  their  lack  of 
money  or  position  debarred  them,  as,  for  instance,  the 
opportunity  of  spending  the  hot  summer  afternoons  un- 
der the  cool  shade  of  the  park  at  Wilhelmshohe,  etc.,  etc. 

The  result  of  all  this  is  that  to  this  day  he  is  looked 
upon  by  his  former  comrades  as  a  friend  far  rather  than 
as  a  Sovereign;  and  not  long  ago  a  worthy  apothecary, 
who  had  been  for  two  years  at  school  with  him,  wrote 
a  very  unsophisticated  letter  to  the  omnipotent  Em- 
peror of  "All  the  Germanics, "  requesting  his  permission 
to  open  a  drug-store  at  Berlin.  Quite  simply,  too,  and 
without  giving  a  sign  of  astonishment  at  this,  a  rather 
unusual  departure  from  all  etiquette,  His  Majesty  caused 
a  letter  to  be  written  to  the  chemist  in  question,  explain- 
ing that  he  had  not  the  least  power  in  such  a  matter, 
a  fact  which  he  truly  regretted,  but  that  he  was  only  too 
glad  to  promise  his  old  "  Kamarad"  his  hearty  patron- 
age should  the  plan  be  put  into  execution  at  any  time. 

Summer  or  winter,  Prince  William  worked  hard,  that 
is  certain!  Often  his  young  face  was  pale  and  drawn, 
for  he  had  begun  in  the  second  term  of  his  sojourn  at 

36 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

Cassel  to  make  too  free  a  use  of  the  midnight  oil;  his 
rooms  were  lined  with  well-thumbed  volumes  of  no  en- 
gaging appearance,  his  tables  strewn  with  papers  black- 
ened by  mathematical  figures,  equations,  and  algebra. 
It  would  be  impossible  to  live  more  simply  than  he  did; 
indeed,  a  " Maas"  of  lager-beer  and  a  couple  of  "Pret- 
zels" were  quite  a  dissipation  for  the  boys  when  Dr. 
Hinzpeter  walked  with  them  in  the  outskirts  of  the  little 
town,  and  they  stopped  for  these  homely  refreshments 
at  some  tree-bo wered  road-side  inn,  above  which  the 
wind  stirred  the  bare  branches  of  the  chestnuts  and 
lindens. 

Dr.  Hinzpeter  saw  with  great  sorrow  the  moment  of 
separation  approach.  This  dread  eventuality  was  daily 
growing  nearer,  for  at  eighteen  Prince  William  would 
be  declared  of  age,  undergo  the  final  investiture  of  the 
order  of  the  Black  Eagle,  and  then  enter  the  University 
of  Bonn,  there  to  terminate  his  education. 

The  affections  of  the  warm-hearted  tutor  were  centred 
upon  the  two  Royal  boys,  who  for  so  long  had  been 
his  hourly  care,  and  to  be  no  more  their  constant  com- 
panion seemed  to  him  a  calamity  beyond  compare. 

Prince  William,  who  was  the  very  apple  of  his  eye, 
received  many  admonitions  during  the  last  weeks  at 
Cassel. 

"You  are  the  heir  to  a  glorious  Throne,"  he  would  re- 
peat again  and  again,  "to  great  traditions  of  honor  and 
valiance,  to  great  duties  and  obligations;  so  you  have 
no  right  ever  to  think  of  yourself.  You  owe  it  to  your 
future  people  and  to  Germany  to  bestir  yourself  and 
to  do  the  uttermost  in  your  power  for  the  good  of  the 
"Vaterland."  A  King  is  a  custodian,  a  trustee,  and  he 
must  bear  his  heavy  burden  nobly  in  the  sight  of  the 
whole  world.  That  is  your  mission,  Prince  William, 
that  is  the  work  you  are  born  to  do,  and  I  know  that  you 

37 


IMPERATOR   ET    REX 

will  do  it,  that  you  will  take  your  life  and  your  mission 
seriously." 

The  Doctor's  vague  eyes  would  light  up  and  glow  with 
enthusiasm  when  he  spoke  thus,  and  his  eloquence  had 
a  very  convincing  and  conclusive  note  in  it;  again  and 
again  he  would  gaze  at  his  beloved  pupil,  discovering 
his  very  soul  to  him.  Positively,  the  poor  man  grew 
thin  with  speculating  about  what  would  come  to  pass 
when  William  came  to  his  own,  and  when  finally  he 
had  to  bid  him  good-bye  his  throat  was  dry,  his  pulses 
pounded,  his  knees  all  but  knocked  together  under  him, 
and  big,  honest  tears  rolled  down  his  cheeks  without 
his  even  thinking  of  concealing  them. 

On  his  leaving  the  Gymnasium  a  very  special  honor 
was  done  to  Prince  William,  and  one  which  rilled  him 
with  the  most  genuine  pride  and  satisfaction.  It  is  a 
time-honored  custom  at  the  "Lyceum  Fredericanium" 
of  Cassel  to  grant  to  the  most  diligent,  clever,  and 
meritorious  pupil  the  so-called  "  Richters-Medaille  "  as 
an  especial  mark  of  distinction,  and  great  was  the 
Royal  lad's  surprise  and  gratification,  when  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  assembled  school  the  head-master  conferred 
it  upon  him,  "  in  recognition  of  his  uniform  and  perse- 
vering diligence  and  of  his  excellent  achievements." 

Turning  as  red  as  a  cherry,  the  delighted  Prince  ex- 
claimed in  his  characteristic,  open-hearted  fashion: 

"You  cannot  imagine  what  pleasure  the  bestowal  of 
this  medal  gives  me,  and  especially  the  thought  that  it 
is  a  distinction  I  have  really  earned  for  myself.  It  is, 
therefore,  a  reward  I  shall  always  highly  prize,  since  I 
honestly  did  all  I  could  to  deserve  it!" 

His  appearance  as  he  spoke  was  so  genuine,  his  alert, 
luminous  eyes  sparkled  with  so  deep  a  pleasure,  that 
thunderous  applause  followed  this  little  speech — an  ab- 
solute ovation  which,  nicely  appraised  by  experienced 

38 


IMPERATOR   ET    REX 

ears,  denoted  not  the  slightest  bit  of  adulation  for  the 
Royal  Prince,  but  a  very  "  bona-fide  "  admiration,  quite 
untinged  with  jealousy,  for  the  school-mate  thus  pub- 
licly and  justly  recompensed. 

Suddenly  transported  from  the  inhospitable  "Fiirsten- 
palast "  of  Cassel  to  his  grandfather's  Court,  surrounded 
once  more  by  the  glamour  and  insidious  satisfaction  af- 
forded by  stately  rooms — rooms  with  mirror-like  floors, 
sumptuously  tapestried  walls,  precious  furnishings,  and 
countless  art  treasures,  lighted  up  by  priceless  Venetian 
chandeliers,  and  always  filled  with  the  warm  fragrance  of 
exotics — the  young  Prince  was  at  first  a  trifle  bewildered. 

The  gorgeousness  of  the  great  purple  Throne  he  would 
one  day  occupy  fascinated  him;  it  caused  him  a  little 
feeling  of  uneasiness,  too — very  similar  to  that  which 
had  made  his  first  trip  to  Cassel  so  unpleasant.  Would 
he  be  worthy  of  this  magnificent  inheritance,  or  would 
he  be  lacking  in  those  heroic  qualities  he  admired  so 
much  in  his  iron-handed  ancestors?  The  thought  was 
so  appalling  that  it  was  a  relief  to  realize  that  two  strong 
lives  still  stood  between  him  and  that  momentous  hour, 
but  yet  in  his  inner  mind  he  was  busy  with  this  future, 
to  prepare  him  for  which  the  efforts  of  his  entire  "  en- 
tourage "had  been  bent  since  his  very  birth. 

Ah,  well!  we  can  only  be  young  once — more's  the  pity 
— and  young  people  are  allowed  to  be  pertinaciously, 
if  silently,  inquisitive  as  regards  Providence.  Prince 
William  was  exceedingly  so,  but  outwardly,  as  was  his 
wont,  he  gave  no  sign  of  the  qualms  he  so  often  endured, 
and  had  already  then,  in  his  ardent  desire  to  conceal 
what  he  considered  a  weakness,  succeeded  in  creating 
the  impression  that  he  possessed  neither  much  warmth 
of  feeling  nor  much  ardor.  "Et  voila  comme  on  ecrit 
I'histoire!"  when  one  permits  one's  self  to  be  misled  by 
appearances. 

39 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

The  tone  almost  invariably  adopted  now  by  the  Heir 
Presumptive  was  judiciously  compounded  of  youthful 
alertness  and  German  bluntness.  Equipped  therewith, 
and  with  a  curious  play  of  the  eyebrows,  which  was  also 
as  assumed  as  it  was  nonchalant,  he  disarmed  all  in- 
vestigation into  his  private  thoughts,  hopes,  and  fears, 
this  ingenuous  device  carrying  him  trippingly  to  the 
autumn  of  1877,  when  he  entered  the  University  of  Bonn. 
No!  no!  he  was  not  really  nonchalant,  this  indefatiga- 
ble, eager,  enthusiastic  boy  of  eighteen  —  not  the  least 
little  bit  so — but  sociability  and  confidence  were  impos- 
sible to  him  just  then,  for  he  was  brimming  over  with 
the  kind  of  defiance  common  to  all  those  of  whom  one 
expects  too  much  at  short  notice.  "  Voila  tout!" 

Attended  by  Major  von  Liebenau  and  Lieutenant  von 
Jacobi,  he  started  one  fine  autumn  morning  for  the 
quaint  little  University  town  on  the  Rhine. 

The  "  Villa  Frank,"  sleeping  within  the  shadowy  still- 
ness of  a  big  garden  laid  out  in  geometrical  parterres 
and  smooth  lawns,  had  been  selected  as  his  domicile;  a 
garden,  however,  fanned  by  the  breezes  from  the  river 
and  gilded  by  the  sun  to  one's  heart's  content.  The  in- 
terior there  was,  again,  excessively  plain,  comprising 
neat,  rather  bare  rooms  that  showed  no  effort  of  any 
kind  to  relieve  their  bleakness. 

Soon,  however,  the  equinoctial  storms  made  havoc 
with  the  garden,  the  pretty,  fragrant  flowers  lay  su- 
pine, their  dainty  corollas  beaten  into  the  ground,  the 
smooth  lawns  were  littered  with  the  gold  of  fallen  leaves, 
and  the  pink  snow  of  dismantled  rose-petals,  and  all 
at  once,  somehow,  one  felt  the  change  in  nature  which 
so  closely  resembles  that  of  approaching  death. 

The  wild  force  of  winter  and  its  reckless  fury  arrived, 
and  the  smooth-flowing  Rhine  became  at  times  a  riot- 
ous race  of  headlong  water,  a  grand,  rushing  volume,  vio- 

40 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

lent  and  superb  beyond  description,  striking  in  huge, 
feathery  masses  of  interrupted  turbulence  wherever  a 
rock  raised  its  gray  head  or  a  promontory  jutted  out 
into  the  stream. 

Often  the  Prince,  who  regarded  the  vault  of  heaven, 
whatever  its  color  might  be,  as  the  only  proper  roof 
for  humanity,  marched  gayly  through  the  pelting  rain 
or  the  driving  snow  to  take  his  constitutional  along  the 
river-bank — where,  during  the  summer,  he  had  loved  to 
sketch — his  lightness  of  step  not  in  the  least  hampered 
by  the  splashing  gravel  or  the  slippery  iciness  under  his 
feet,  "a  brisk  walk,  whatever  the  weather,"  being  one 
of  his  pet  maxims. 

The  years  he  spent  at  the  celebrated  Rhenish  Univer- 
sity were  not,  however,  destined  to  prove  either  as  be- 
neficent or  as  pleasing  as  the  sojourn  at  Cassel.  They 
were  for  him  a  complete  transplantation  into  entirely 
new  surroundings  and  conditions,  for,  instead  of  the 
easy  and  unaffected  comradeship  of  mere  boys,  and  the 
wise  and  genial  companionship  of  Dr.  Hinzpeter,  not 
to  mention  the  delightful  and  intimate  intercourse  which 
he  had  had  with  his  brother,  he  now  found  himself 
thrown  into  the  constant  society  of  gay  and  festive 
"Junkers"  who,  overjoyed  to  become  intimate  with 
their  future  Sovereign,  and  keeping  a  wary  eye  on  the 
ultimate  advantages  to  be  derived  therefrom,  created 
around  him  an  atmosphere  of  toadyism  and  adulation. 

Moreover,  one  of  the  smartest  corps  of  officers  in  the 
German  army,  the  "  Kdnigshusaren"  was  then  stationed 
at  Bonn,  and  Prince  William,  whose  military  enthusiasm 
was  as  thorough  as  ever,  spent  a  considerable  portion  of 
his  time,  booted  and  spurred  and  decked  in  all  the  glory 
of  his  lieutenant's  uniform,  with  those  dashing  and  hot- 
headed scions  of  the  German  aristocracy. 

The  Hohenzollern  training  included,  before  the  pres- 

41 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

ent  era,  one  feature  especially  galling  to  a  high-spirited, 
proud  nature,  and  that  was  the  inadequate  and  insuffi- 
cient allowance  accorded  to  the  young  Princes  of  the 
reigning  House.  In  Prince  William's  case  this  parsi- 
mony was  redoubled  and  insisted  upon  with  what  one 
.might  really  call  ferocious  exactitude,  so  much  so,  in- 
deed, that  had  it  not  been  for  the  cleverness  and  exces- 
sive economy  of  Major  von  Liebenau,  who  had  charge 
of  his  household  during  the  sojourn  at  Bonn,  it  would 
have  been  impossible  for  him  to  have  lived  in  a  manner 
befitting  his  rank — even  as  a  student-Prince. 

It  does  not  seem  to  have  entered  anybody's  head  at 
Berlin  then,  that  the  young  man  could  really  suffer  from 
such  a  state  of  affairs — Spartans,  as  a  rule,  always  lacked 
imagination,  particularly  where  others  were  concerned 
—  but  pinching  and  scraping  are  uncongenial  to  the 
young,  or  else  they  must  have  a  special  vocation  for  a 
narrow-minded  and  miserly  existence,  which  inclination 
certainly  was  not  to  be  laid  at  Prince  William's  door. 
It  was,  moreover,  never  willed  by  Providence  that  a 
youth  of  his  complexion  should  pass  the  spring-time 
of  his  life  in  wretched  cheese-paring  plots  and  plans, 
thereby  missing  all  which  that  spring-time  had  to  offer 
that  was  sweet  and  pleasing.  It  is  enough  to  envenom 
the  heart  and  soul  of  any  of  God's  creatures  to  be  put 
in  so  false  a  position,  and  to  make  one  churlish  and 
sulky  as  well.  It  is  therefore  little  short  of  marvel- 
lous that  so  unpleasant  a  result  should  not  have  been 
evoked  in  this  instance,  and  yet  more  so  that  it  should 
never  have  occurred  to  Prince  William  to  make  an  ap- 
peal to  his  grandfather,  who  would  undoubtedly  have 
doubled  or  trebled  his  meagre  allowance  for  the  mere 
asking,  and  without  breathing  a  word  of  it  to  any  one. 
That,  too,  is  very  characteristic  of  Emperor  William, 
who  abhors  anything  not  quite  frank  and  above  board. 

42 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

Before  long  the  dreamy,  concentrated  nature  of  the 
young  Prince  was  in  a  measure  wrested  from  its  normal 
development  by  this  plunge  into  the  world.  Indeed, 
the  old  state  of  affairs  influenced  him  only  in  so  far  as 
that  he  kept  himself  still  somewhat  in  reserve,  and  that 
at  times  he  preserved  a  strict  privacy  of  his  own. 

He  did  not  become  lazy  or  self-contented,  and  his 
professors,  among  whom  were  Halschner,  Loersch,  and 
von  Stintzing,  spoke  highly  of  his  talents,  application, 
and  industry;  but,  although  he  refused  to  lead  the  silly, 
frivolous  life  of  the  ordinary  run  of  rich  students,  yet 
for  a  boy  of  his  age  the  satisfaction  of  almost  complete 
emancipation,  flavored  with  the  pungent  and  penetrat- 
ing incense  of  flattery,  had  its  dangers. 

Greatly  to  his  credit  be  it  therefore  said,  that  his  head 
was  not  turned  by  the  suddenness  of  the  change  from  the 
cool  and  soothing  penumbra  of  his  existence  at  Cassel 
to  the  warm,  fragrant,  adulatory  atmosphere  which  sur- 
rounded him  at  Bonn ;  but  somehow  it  was  not  quite  the 
same  Prince  William  who  now  went  in  and  out  of  the 
erstwhile  so  silent  and  peaceful  "  Villa  Frank,"  amid  the 
pounding  of  hoofs  and  the  grinding  of  carriage-wheels, 
escorted  by  a  veritable  "  cohue "  of  vivacious  "Seig- 
neurs," who  laughed,  sang,  and  joked  without  cessa- 
tion; there  was  a  difference,  subtle,  almost  undetect- 
able,  but  of  which  the  perverse  detractors  of  Royalty 
and  all  that  hangs  thereto  made  excellent  use,  you  may 
believe  me. 

It  was  not  in  flesh  and  blood  to  remain  quite  un- 
moved by  the  tributes  paid  to  him  during  these  Univer- 
sity years,  especially  since  that  flesh  and  blood  were 
virgin  gold,  unstamped  as  yet  and  un wrought  by  the 
cruel  fingers  of  experience. 

Say  what  you  will,  it  is  flattery  that  generally  wins 
the  day,  and  when  a  youth  of  eighteen,  who  has  hither- 

4  43 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

to  been  treated  with  great  severity,  finds  out  all  at  once 
that  he  cannot  open  his  mouth  without  arousing  thun- 
ders of  ecstatic  approval  and  admiration,  that  he  can- 
not express  an  opinion  without  its  being  declared  the 
most  novel,  original,  transcendent,  and  altogether  per- 
fect ever  advanced,  is  it  not  natural  that  this  youth 
should  show  some  superciliousness  in  the  tilt  of  his  nose, 
a  " soup f on"  of  self-assertion  in  the  twirl  of  his  dawning 
mustaches,  and  a  faint  tinge  of  masterfulness  in  the 
straightening  of  his  shoulders  ? 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  Prince  William's  faculties  were 
at  that  period  often  in  a  whirl  when  he  pictured  his  fut- 
ure to  himself.  Imagination  flew  on  the  wings  of  his 
desire,  and  there  that  future  stood  before  him  in  all  its 
sumptuous  splendor — strong,  powerful,  and  glowing — 
and,  as  he  dreamed,  his  eyes  lightened,  burned,  his  blood 
came  and  went  in  his  cheeks,  his  lips  parted  as  if  to  ex- 
press the  inexpressible — the  wild  hunger  and  the  wild 
triumph  of  his  soul.  But  souls  are  apt  to  ache  after 
such  commotions,  and  presently  the  price  had  to  be 
paid  by  a  mood  of  desperate  renunciation  and  discour- 
agement, of  resentment  against  himself  and  all  his 
apostles,  followed  in  turn  by  a  kind  of  exhaustion 
which  made  the  already-mentioned  detractors  declare 
that  the  Prince  was  abnormally  sulky. 

These  conflicting  emotions,  so  natural  in  a  youth  of 
William's-  temperament,  were  not  understood  during  the 
visits  which  he  paid  to  Berlin  and  Potsdam,  where  the 
alternate  exuberance  and  depression  of  his  spirit  were 
alike  regarded  as  subjects  for  condemnation,  adminis- 
tered in  a  manner  peculiarly  galling  to  his  feelings,  with- 
out any  allowance  whatsoever  being  made  for  the 
mould  of  his  character. 

The  Emperor  alone  never  varied  in  his  boundless 
tenderness  and  leniency.  The  dear  old  man  was  not  in 

44 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

the  habit  of  chaining  up  his  natural  impulses,  and  his 
natural  impulses  all  converged  to  idolize  his  grandson, 
and  to  succumb  to  the  enchantment  of  being  first  and 
foremost  in  his  affections. 

What  call  had  he  to  be  Spartan  and  severe  and  a 
' '  trouble-fete ' '  when  his  faith  in  the  boy  remained  un- 
shaken by  other  people's  scepticism  and  subtle  reason- 
ing ?  He  only  cared  to  dispel  the  clouds  which  repeated 
admonitions  brought  upon  the  smooth  brow  of  his  dar- 
ling. At  all  events,  when  he  saw  him  with  an  unsmiling 
face,  all  the  severe  resolutions  he  might  momentarily 
have  been  induced  to  make  were  checked,  and  the  im- 
petus of  his  intent  broken  like  a  dry  twig,  since,  for  him, 
there  was  then  nothing  more  pressing  and  urgent  to  do 
than  to  coax  back  the  smile  which  suited  those  young 
lips  so  well. 

Thus  did  the  aged  Monarch  persevere  in  his  half -humor- 
ous, wholly  good-natured  friendliness  towards  the  world 
in  general  and  his  entire  family  in  particular,  beloved  and 
honored  by  all,  and  fairly  worshipped  by  his  grandson. 

When,  on  the  26.  of  June,  1878,  Nobiling  shot  at 
and  very  nearly  killed  Emperor  William  I.,  Prince 
Wrilliam  was  completely  prostrated  by  grief  at  first, 
his  impressionable  nature  making  him  revolt  with  ter- 
rible anger  against  this  the  first  great  sorrow  of  his 
life.  The  days  which  followed  the  cowardly  "attentat" 
upon  the  noble  and  kindly  old  man  were  for  his  grand- 
son indescribably  wretched ;  he  lelt  fagged-out  as  by  some 
tremendous  exertion,  and  I  have  it  from  an  eye-witness 
that  his  haggard  face  and  miserable  eyes  were  pitiful 
to  behold.  Nor  is  this  strange,  for  I  remember  what  a 
pathetic  impression  the  wounded  Emperor  created  even 
upon  me,  when,  as  soon  as  he  was  able  to  be  moved,  he 
came  to  the  Austrian  baths  of  Teplitz-Schonau,  to  try 
and  recover  a  little  strength. 

45 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

To  see  the  stalwart  giant,  now  bent  and  tottering, 
leaning  feebly  on  the  arm  of  an  aide-de-camp  during 
his  short  little  walks  in  the  park,  where  the  sun  shone 
strong  and  clear,  the  birds  flew  merrily  about  their  af- 
fairs, and  the  flowers  breathed  forth  their  perfumes, 
was  a  sight  to  hurt  one  deeply. 

All  the  world  was  as  it  had  ever  been;  but,  oh!  the 
difference  in  him!  And  yet,  although  one's  heart  was 
full  of  unshed  tears  at  so  piteous  a  sight,  when  one 
watched  his  patient  face,  his  unfailing  smile,  and  heard 
the  brave  intonation  of  his  voice,  a  strange  feeling  of 
exaltation  took  possession  of  one  and  made  one's  heart 
beat  with  admiration. 

He  was  really  a  man  to  renew  one's  faith  in  human 
nature,  this  old  Emperor,  so  good  and  so  simple,  and  so 
plucky — indeed,  William  the  Great — who  never  uttered 
a  single  word  of  complaint,  and  in  whose  eyes  so  wonder- 
ful and  clear  a  light  shone. 

How  well  I  remember  him  walking  slowly,  slowly 
backward  and  forward  on  the  grass  one  fresh,  bright 
morning,  leaning  upon  the  arm  of  the  great  Iron  Chan- 
cellor, who  had  arrived  the  night  before  on  a  visit  to 
him!  The  contrast  between  them  was  almost  painful, 
so  insolently  healthy  and  strong  did  Bismarck  appear 
beside  his  Imperial  Master,  who,  with  his  head  still  band- 
aged, his  arm  in  a  sling,  and  wearing  civilian  clothes — 
in  itself  a  most  unusual  and  alarming  thing  with  this 
warrior  Monarch — clung  to  the  support  of  his  powerful 
old  friend  and  counsellor. 

By -and -by  they  came  and  sat  down  on  a  wicker 
bench  under  an  awning  placed  every  morning  beneath 
the  trees  of  a  side-allee  for  the  patient's  convenience. 
On  a  little  table  stood  a  carafe  of  water,  some  tumblers, 
and  a  sugar-bowl.  Prince  Bismarck  poured  some  water 
into  a  tumbler,  put  in  two  lumps  of  sugar,  stirred  the 

46 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

mixture  with  the  minute  attention  he  accorded  to  all 
he  did,  and,  when  the  sugar  was  completely  dissolved, 
added  a  few  drops  of  some  medicine  or  tonic  to  it,  from 
a  "  flacon,"  which  he  took  from  a  case  on  the  table,  and 
handed  the  now  rose-colored  beverage  to  the  Emperor, 
who  drank  it  off  in  a  series  of  little  sips. 

I  watched  the  whole  performance  from  a  secluded  spot 
where  I  was  in  the  habit  of  walking  up  and  down  every 
day  for  an  hour  after  my  bath — for  I  also  was  there  to 
recover  from  an  injury,  occasioned  by  a  severe  fall  with 
my  horse,  which  had  left  me  distressingly  lame.  I  had 
not  the  faintest  idea  that  I  was  observed,  and  purposely 
kept  at  a  distance,  but,  as  was  soon  to  be  proved  to  me, 
my  hopes  were  quite  fallacious! 

The  park  at  Teplitz-Schonau  is  a  charmingly  pretty 
place,  a  surprisingly  jolly  place,  too,  with  clematis  and 
jasmine  climbing  all  over  the  queer  little  kiosks,  where 
military  music  is  played  in  the  afternoon,  and  where 
wisteria  twines  about  the  trunks  of  the  trees  with  af- 
fectionate persistency. 

Half  an  hour  later,  as  I  was  walking  home  to  my 
second  breakfast,  along  the  sunny  lawns  dotted  with 
flower-beds  and  rustic  benches,  and  pervaded  by  a 
delicious  coolness,  stillness,  and  fragrance,  I  suddenly 
came,  at  the  turning  of  a  shady  path,  face  to  face  with 
the  Emperor,  accompanied  now  by  one  of  his  aides-de- 
camp. 

A  smile  of  indulgent  amusement  appeared  on  his  lips, 
and,  as  I  courtesied  as  low  as  my  stiff  knee  allowed,  it 
merged  into  a  genuine  chuckle,  the  satisfied  chuckle  of 
a  man  whose  tactics  have  succeeded  beyond  his  hopes. 

Very  much  surprised,  I  looked  at  him  with  absolute 
bewilderment,  for  I  could  not  understand  why  I  thus 
aroused  his  hilarity,  nor  was  I  less  astonished  when  he 
put  forth  his  uninjured  hand — disengaging  it  for  that 

47 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

purpose  from  his  stolid  escort's  arm — and  deliberately 
pinched  my  ear.  I  was  so  young  in  those  days  that,  in 
spite  of  "my  great  dignity  as  a  married  woman,"  the 
Emperor  always  treated  me  as  a  mere  child. 

"I  have  caught  you  finely,  madame!"  he  laughed. 
"So  you  deign  to  show  yourself,  now  that  Croquemitaine 
is  gone!  I  saw  you  hiding  an  hour  ago,  a  flitting  white- 
ness amid  the  green  bushes  yonder,  as  if  my  estimable 
friend  Bismarck  was  the  Werewolf!  Tell  me  why  you 
gave  yourself  such  superfluous  pains,  since  we  both  saw 
you  as  plain  as  day?" 

I,  too,  could  not  help  laughing  now,  and,  catching  the 
spirit  of  the  dear  old  man's  mood,  I  said,  sedately: 

"With  sentiments  of  the  deepest  regret  I  must  re- 
spectfully decline  to  tell  Your  Majesty  the  reasons  of 
my  suspicious  conduct,  which  now  humiliate  me  be- 
yond measure  when  I  recall  them." 

"Oh,  my  dear  child,"  objected  he,  "I  know  your  rea- 
sons very  well."  He  chuckled  again.  "You  knew  that 
you  could  not  take  it  upon  yourself  to  be  graciously 
friendly,  and  as  under  the  circumstances  you  did  not 
wish  to  hurt  my  poor,  well-meaning  friend's  feelings,  and 
perhaps  burden  my  own  soul  with  a  falsehood  too — since 
I  should  have  been  forced  to  explain  that  this  is  your 
habitual  manner — you  went  into  hiding!" 

Now,  ever  since  France  has  been  a  republic  and  has 
repudiated  her  title  as  Eldest  Daughter  of  the  Church, 
we  Bretons  hate  being  classed  with  the  French,  but  the 
disaster  of  1870-71  has  left  deep  scars  on  French  and 
Breton  hearts  alike,  and,  moreover,  in  those  days  my 
newly  acquired  Austrian  nationality  added  but  fuel  to 
the  flame  of  my  very  real  resentment  against  Bismarck. 

A  childish  feeling,  the  common -sense  people  will  say, 
and  that  is  just  exactly  what  it  was — a  childish  feeling, 
born  and  bred  of  the  mad  exasperation  which  the  mere 

48 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

name  of  the  victorious  iron-fisted  General  used  to  arouse 
during  all  the  years  of  my  childhood,  even  in  silent, 
sedate  Brittany.  So  I  was  a  little  ashamed  of  myself 
now  for  having  allowed  this  "  enfantillage  "  to  rob  me  of 
the  sincere  pleasure  which  the  kindly,  cheery  "good- 
morning"  of  the  Emperor  daily  afforded  me,  and  I  dare 
say  that  I  must  in  consequence  have  looked  exceedingly 
sheepish. 

No  doubt  he  noticed  this,  for  he  immediately  took  up 
the  joke  again,  fearing  evidently  to  pain  me  by  any 
graver  allusion  to  my  feelings  in  the  matter. 

"Well!  well!"  he  said,  with  mock  truculence,  "I 
wish  I  could  have  seen  you  two  quarrelling!  But  in  a 
universe  like  ours  nothing  is  impossible,  for  there  are 
more  things  in  heaven  and  earth  than  people  generally 
dream  of;  so  there  is  no  reason  why,  instead  of  quarrel- 
ling, you  should  not  eventually  become  the  best  of 
friends." 

"Without  doubt,"  I  conceded,  merrily,  "everything 
is  possible,  and  when  one  is  so  far  on  one's  way  to  the 
light  it  is  clearly  one's  duty  to  go  yet  further." 

"That's  right,  that's  right,"  approved  the  Emperor, 
with  a  third  chuckle.  "Cultivate  the  enemy's  acquaint- 
ance, talk  with  him,  set  him  thinking,  and  yet"  -he 
concluded  with  sudden  gravity — "if  you  did  that  you 
would  be  yourself  no  longer,  which  would  be  a  thousand, 
thousand  pities,  so  I  will  not  press  the  suggestion." 

Some  hours  after  this  characteristic  little  incident  I 
received  an  immense  bouquet  of  snowy  Marguerites, 
scarlet  poppies,  and  deep  sapphire-blue"  Kaiserblumen," 
tied  by  long  streamers  of  white  satin  powdered  with 
golden  "  Fleurs  de  Lys."  Reposing  within  the  flowers 
was  a  card  upon  which  was  inscribed,  beneath  the  Im- 
perial Crown  of  the  august  sender: 

"Admirez  ce  singulier  assemblage,  qui  satisfera,  je  Vcspere, 

49 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

le  grand  cceur  Breton  et  la  petite  tete  franfaise  pour  qui 
il  est  destine!"  (Admire  this  singular  assemblage,  which 
will,  I  hope,  satisfy  the  big  Breton  heart  and  the  little 
French  head  for  which  it  is  destined!) 

This  was  typical  of  Emperor  William  I.,  who  was  an 
irresistible  old  man,  and  to  please  whom  I  am  certain  I 
could  have  been  brought  to  smile  upon  a  dozen  Bis- 
marcks,  even  in  those  irrational  and  impetuous  days  of 
my  early  youth. 

The  so-nearly-successful  attempt  upon  his  grand- 
father's life  was  not  the  only  sorrow  which  befell  Prince 
William  during  his  University  course,  for  the  shade  of 
yet  other  troubles  fell  upon  him  with  the  death  of  his 
brother  Prince  Waldemar,  and  that  of  his  aunt  Grand 
Duchess  Alice  of  Hesse,  mother  of  the  present  Empress 
of  Russia — events  which  deeply  saddened  the  Imperial 
Family. 

During  that  period  of  mourning  the  young  man  lived 
very  quietly  and  in  almost  complete  retirement.  He 
walked  a  great  deal  about  his  garden  and  on  the  river- 
path  below,  along  the  racing  Rhine,  or  sat  down  to 
sketch  some  of  the  charming  "  points  de  vue  "  with  which 
that  picturesque  shore  abounds,  for  already  then  he  was 
no  mean  hand  with  pencil  and  brush,  and  was  a  remark- 
able colorist  as  well.  When  he  came  home,  fagged-out 
and  dusty,  he  used  to  spend  long  hours  in  his  study— 
a  remarkably  simple  and  work-a-day  room — reflecting 
upon  the  lamentable  fact  that  life  is  a  bundle  of  pins, 
and  man  its  pin-cushion — a  truism,  certainly,  but  a  use- 
ful one  to  assimilate. 

He  reverted  to  his  old  habit  of  reading  much,  choosing 
haphazard  from  the  miscellaneous  collection  of  volumes, 
comprising  Dickens,  Jules  Verne,  Droz,  the  German 
poets,  Dumas,  Byron,  etc.,  filling  the  shelves  behind  his 
writing-table.  Often,  also,  he  would  gaze  abstractedly 

50 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

at  the  many  large,  framed  photographs  of  the  German 
fleet  hanging  on  the  walls,  vaguely  promising  himself 
that  one  day  he  would  create  a  splendid  navy  for  the 
Empire — a  plan  which  since  the  very  beginning  of  his 
reign  he  has  insisted  upon. 

Meanwhile  the  seasons  came  and  went  with  their  usual 
praiseworthy  regularity.  The  shining  forests  on  the 
Rhine,  turned  to  bronze  by  the  autumn  winds,  were 
covered  with  their  first  dainty  mantle  of  snow  when 
the  Grand  Duchess  von  Hesse  died ;  the  river  gleamed 
violet-gray  through  the  late  March  fogs  when  little 
Prince  Waldemar  followed  her  into  the  grave,  and  now 
there  came  with  the  spring  flowers  of  1879  a  more  than 
ordinary  lavishness  of  light  and  color,  of  depth  and  at- 
mosphere into  the  Prince's  life,  something  immeasurably 
beyond  anything  delicious  he  might  have  imagined  or 
dreamed.  There  came  into  his  eyes  an  unwonted  glow 
—  a  softness  quite  delightful  to  watch.  The  Prince 
Charming  had  found  his  "  Dornroschen."  The  Prince 
was  in  love ! 


CHAPTER   III 

SCHLOSS  PRINKENAU!  A  fair  castle,  looking,  turret 
for  turret  and  battlement  for  battlement,  as  if  torn 
bodily  from  the  pages  of  some  quaint,  beautifully  illu- 
minated volume  of  old  legends.  Vast,  irregularly  pictu- 
resque, the  older  portions  quite  grimly  mediaeval — a  veri- 
table lake-side  fortress,  with  ponderous,  square  towers, 
gray  stone  walls,  and  moss-tinted  machicolations — the 
more  modern  wings  of  gleaming  granite,  with  fanciful 
carvings,  spires,  and  pinnacles,  light,  gay,  and  hospitable, 
profiling  their  clear  outlines  against  the  vivid  green  of 
beech-trees,  the  dark,  metallic  hue  of  firs  and  pines,  and 
the  more  delicate  and  silver-dappled  tints  of  sycamores. 

The  fagade,  mirroring  its  capricious  contours  in  the 
waters  of  an  exquisitely  transparent  little  lake,  arose 
proudly  from  banks  of  hortensias  in  full  bloom,  two 
swelling  waves  of  purple  and  mauve,  indigo  and  azure, 
deep  rose  and  faint  pink,  whereon  the  sun-rays  lovingly 
lingered,  while  to  the  right  and  left  some  gnarled  old 
willows,  bending  over  the  waters,  supported  clambering 
roses  both  white  and  red,  spreading  to  the  topmost 
branches  their  nodding  fragrance. 

A  pretty  picture,  say  you!  Yes,  undoubtedly,  but 
"  Wacht  een  beche"  as  the  good  Dutch  say,  for  there  is 
more  to  see,  something  in  fact  which,  when  he  gazed 
upon  it,  made  our  Imperial  hero's  heart  quicken  and 
tremble. 

In  the  depths  of  the  park,  where  the  sun  shone  gently 
through  a  cool,  green  veil,  gilding  here  and  there  with 

52 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

pinkish  gold  the  points  of  the  spears  of  grass  through 
the  interstices  of  the  foliage,  a  hammock  was  swinging 
between  two  rose-garlanded  firs — roses  had  a  habit  of 
climbing  and  clambering  everywhere  at  Schloss  Prin- 
kenau — and  in  that  hammock  fast  asleep  lay  a  girl  whose 
rounded  cheeks  were  flushed  with  the  warm,  healthy 
shell-pink,  which  is  the  prerogative  of  those  who  prefer 
the  air  as  God  made  it  to  the  comparative  stuffiness  of 
even  the  vastest  of  palaces. 

She  was  young,  barely  more  than  twenty,  with  softly 
chiselled  features,  hair  sombre  gold  in  the  shadow,  but 
where  the  truant  sun-rays  touched  it  the  hue  of  liquid 
topaz — light  and  sparkling,  indeed  as  if  delicately  pow- 
dered with  jewel-dust — and  a  pretty  mouth  half  parted 
in  a  smile,  as  if  her  dreams  were  singularly  pleasant 
ones. 

The  picture  which  she  presented  was  perfect  in  tone, 
shape,  and  coloring. 

She  wore  a  garden  frock  of  light  muslin  the  soft,  bil- 
lowy folds  showing  to  immense  advantage  her  slender, 
reclining  form,  while  some  stray  petals,  wafted  by  the 
light  breeze  from  the  roses  above,  gave  here  and  there 
delicious  touches  of  satiny  red  and  pale  yellow. 

Even  that  sumptuous  park  would  have  looked  dreary 
and  empty  had  she  not  been  there,  so  well  did  she  fit  in 
the  princely  landscape,  so  aptly  did  she  form  the  very 
climax  of  that  sylvan  "  mise  en  scene." 

The  grand  old  trees  seemed  to  whisper  to  one  another, 
as  did  the  tall,  imperial  lilies,  the  white  meadow-sweets, 
and  the  haughty  peonies,  scattered  in  the  grass,  that 
the  sight  was  good  to  behold,  and  here  and  there  a 
little  thrill  of  inexpressible  gladness  seemed  to  ruffle 
like  crisping  wavelets  a  field  of  anemones  of  all  imagi- 
nable changeful  hues  stretching  "  d  perte  de  vue  "  the  silk 
of  their  shivering  corollas  beneath  the  spreading  boughs. 

53 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

Suddenly  the  branches  of  a  Siberian  pine  were  gently 
parted,  and  a  young  man,  erect  and  graceful,  stepped  into 
the  bower  where  the  hammock  was  swung,  while  a  voice, 
youthful  and  well  modulated,  though  expressing  the 
extreme  of  joyful  surprise,  exclaimed: 

"  Dornrdscken  I" 

The  Prince  had  found  his  Princess! 

This  is  the  true  and  authentic  story  of  how  it  came 
about  that  Prince  William,  invited  by  Duke  Frederick 
of  Schleswig  -  Holstein  -  Sonderburg  -  Augustenburg,  to 
visit  him  and  his  beautiful  wife,  the  Duchess  Adelheid, 
at  their  Castle  of  Prinkenau,  left  his  heart  behind  him 
when  a  few  weeks  later  he  returned  to  his  grandfather's 
Court. 

When  he  placed  this  newly  born  love  of  his  before  his 
family,  he  assumed  a  tone  of  high  detachment,  as  was 
his  invariable  custom  when  desirous  of  concealing  his 
deeper  emotions,  although  his  heart  went  hot  and  cold  at 
the  thought  of  his  "  Dornroschen,"  and  at  the  inward 
consciousness  that  his  way  of  expressing  himself  was  but 
the  blighted  bud  of  what  he  had  planned  to  say.  So 
once  more  the  ever-ready  detractors  had  fair  play,  and 
clamored  violently  against  so  persistent  a  coldness  and 
hardness  of  heart. 

After  this,  indeed,  William — now  a  full-blown  Royal 
Prince,  graduated  with  honors  from  the  University, 
and,  placed  in  possession  of  all  the  privileges  of  his  rank 
and  position — seemed  determined  to  show  himself  more 
stiff  and  reticent  than  ever.  Decidedly  he  was  becoming 
a  difficult  puzzle  to  solve,  for  his  reserve  of  manner  was 
singularly  impenetrable,  he  examined  everything  with 
his  deep-blue  eyes,  calmly,  distantly,  and  with  no  ap- 
parent interest,  and  when  he  spoke  it  was  with  a  sort 
of  gentle  but  icy  indifference,  although  he  certainly  con- 
veyed no  impression  of  sleepiness  or  abstraction. 

54 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

Finding  but  little  sympathy  around  him,  he  simply 
gave  none,  and  was  so  unlike  the  ordinary  run  of  young 
men  that  it  was  difficult  to  imagine  him  what  he  really 
was — imaginative,  desirous  of  sympathy,  hungering  with 
a  strange,  pathetic,  and  never-satisfied  hunger  for  ap- 
preciation. 

Those  who,  like  Gortchakow,  looked  far,  far  deeper 
than  the  surface,  knew  that  he  had  been  ground  in  a 
ruthless  mill — a  mill  which  comes  perilously  near  to 
grinding  soul  and  heart  to  powder;  but  how  many 
were  there  clever  enough  to  thus  explain  his  curious 
attitude  ? 

Moreover,  he  was  at  that  period  of  life  when  the 
whole  being  seems  suddenly  to  become  restless  with 
that  bewildering  sensation  of  never  having  really  lived, 
and  when  the  young  man  scarcely  knows  how  he 
should  proceed  to  the  fulfilment  of  all  the  tasks  he  has 
set  for  himself,  all  the  dreams  with  which  his  brain 
aches.  It  is  called  by  psychologues  a  "  sickness  of  the 
soul" — not  a  bad  definition  for  people  who  as  a  rule 
make  a  virtue  of  rendering  everything  they  say  unin- 
telligible and  obscure. 

There  was  yet  another,  however,  who  in  those  days 
made  no  secret  of  his  opinion  that  Prince  William  was 
misjudged,  and  that  he  would  in  a  near  future  surprise 
the  world  and  make  a  great  and  glorious  name  for  him- 
self. This  was  King  Christian  of  Denmark,  who  ever 
since  a  visit  to  Schloss  Rumpenheim  in  Hesse  (where  a 
series  of  magnificent  fetes  were  being  given  in  honor  of 
the  aged  Emperor  William  I.,  and  where  the  Danish 
Monarch  met  Prince  William)  became  much  attached  to 
him. 

Indeed,  His  Majesty  of  Denmark  was  so  indignant 
when  he  witnessed  the  cavalier  fashion  in  which  the 
Imperial  and  Royal  guests  present  seemed  to  wilfully 

55 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

wound  the  German  Heir  Presumptive,  that  he  threw  a 
great  additional  warmth  into  his  own  treatment  of  the 
young  Prince  and  became  his  constant  companion. 

From  early  morn  till  late  at  night  the  slender  lad  of 
twenty  and  the  big,  kindly,  gentle-eyed  man  of  sixty 
were  together,  and  the  King,  filled  with  concern  and 
sympathy,  managed  with  the  aid  of  that  well-known 
smile  of  his,  which  went  as  an  "  avant-garde  "  to  disarm 
resentment,  to  delicately  probe  the  wounds  inflicted 
upon  his  protege,  and  affably,  softly,  and  persistently 
applied  invisible  balm  of  a  very  curative  nature. 

When  in  the  company  of  congenial  people,  be  it  said, 
Prince  William  was  at  once  transformed,  his  very  voice 
became  brisk  and  cheerful,  and  its  abruptness  was  so 
tempered  by  manifest  good- will  that  it  grew  absolutely 
lovable,  especially  as  there  was  then  and  is  still  to-day 
something  pleasingly  boyish  in  its  timbre.  At  such 
times,  too,  he  carried  his  head  well  thrown  back  in  a 
singularly  un-self-conscious  manner,  and  not  a  bit  rigidly 
or  stiffly,  his  vehemence  of  action  lending  him  nothing 
but  an  additional  and  very  personal  charm. 

King  Christian,  a  most  inspiritingly  young  old  man, 
dispensed  comfort  and  amusement  (two  commodities 
which  count  for  infinitely  more  with  some  spirits  than 
stern  reprimand  and  assiduous  preachings)  unsparingly, 
with  the  very  natural  result  that  this  attitude  of  his  has 
never  been  forgotten,  and  that  William  II.  displays 
towards  few  people  so  great  an  amount  of  affection,  rev- 
erence, and  touching,  almost  filial  deference,  as  that 
which  he  shows  to  this  consoler  of  his  youthful  trials. 

One  of  his  first  visits  after  his  accession  to  the  Throne 
in  1888  was  to  this  old  friend,  upon  whom  he  has  not 
ceased  to  shower  the  most  profuse  and  lovingly  thought- 
out  attentions,  for  Emperor  William  possesses  to  an 
extraordinary  degree  "/a  memoir e  dn  c&ur,"  and  when  he 

56 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

thinks  that  he  has  reason  to  be  grateful,  be  it  for  the  small- 
est service,  he  knows  well  how  to  display  the  deepest 
and  most  touching  gratitude.  There  is  never  with  him 
any  question  of  "shirking  or  burking  it."  It  is  a  won- 
derful quality — that  of  gratitude — and  a  very  wide- 
spread belief  prevails  to  the  effect  that  Monarchs  from 
the  very  beginning  ot  Monarchy  have  been  lamentably 
lacking  in  this  respect,  Not  so,  however,  Emperor 
William,  who  never  and  under  no  circumstances  whatso- 
ever omits  to  remember  the  very  slightest  kindness  done 
to  him  or  those  he  loves. 

With  each  step  that  he  took  forward,  now,  however, 
Prince  William  gradually  regained  an  equanimity  that 
was  really  natural  to  him.  Although  the  part  he  had 
to  play  was  an  odd  and  a  difficult  one,  he  faced  the 
complexities  of  the  game,  and  by  the  time  his  engage- 
ment was  formally  announced  felt  happier  than  he 
had  ever  been  since  his  childhood.  His  whole  nature 
now  aimed  at  an  atmosphere  of  tenderness  and  of  rever- 
ent romance;  but  his  entourage  did  not  harmonize  with 
such  a  mood,  and  so  he  kept  it  carefully  concealed,  like 
a  man  in  a  climate  that  does  not  suit  his  health,  and  who 
takes  every  precaution  against  outside  influences. 

All  the  scurrilous  stories  circulated  concerning  the 
many  alleged  intrigues  of  Prince  William  with  women 
of  all  classes  and  conditions  are  the  most  abominable 
tissue  of  lies  ever  invented.  Immorality  of  whatsoever  a 
kind  has  always  filled  him  with  a  sort  of  physical  dis- 
gust and  a  feeling  of  uncomprehending  wonder,  certain- 
ly quite  distinct  from  prudery,  but  which  set  him  very 
much  apart  from  other  young  men  similarly  situated. 

The  feverish  brilliancy  of  vice  was  to  him  utterly 
hateful.  He  realized,  doubtless,  as  all  other  men  do, 
its  power  and  magnetic  influence ;  but  those  who  claim 
that  he  yielded  to  either  simply  do  not  know  whereof 

57 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

they  speak,  for  his  purity  of  life  was  even  frequently 
made  the  subject  of  unkind  comment  at  Vienna,  where 
extraordinary  punctiliousness  in  that  particular  is  not 
the  order  of  the  day — or  night! 

In  the  days  of  which  I  now  speak  Prince  William  and 
Crown  Prince  Rudolph  of  Austria  were  intimate  friends, 
and  the  latter,  who  was  justly  reputed  to  play  sad  havoc 
with  feminine  hearts,  and  to  be  one  of  the  gayest  of  the 
gay,  looked  with  amazement  upon  the  singularly  blame- 
less career  of  his  dearest  "chum,"  as  he  used  to  call  the 
Prince.  Indeed,  I  have  heard  him  myself  declare  many 
a  time  that  it  was  quite  discouraging  to  try  and  get  Will- 
iam interested  in  what  usually  attracts  and  fascinates 
benedicts,  because  he  was  so  obstinately  deaf  to  the 
riotous  voice  of  mere  pleasure. 

I  have  watched  him  personally  during  a  remarkably 
vivacious  "Fasching"  at  the  Austrian  Court,  and  was 
really  astonished  to  see  so  young  a  man,  look  as  if  he 
deliberately  ignored  the  brilliant  revellers,  who  were 
so  near  to  him  in  body,  and  appeared  so  far  away  from 
him  in  mind  and  similarity  of  tastes.  He  impressed  me 
decidedly  as  some  one  who  has  a  great  purpose  in  view, 
which  serves  him  as  a  very  efficient  deterrent,  and  which, 
like  a  delicious  "  mirage  "  rises  and  floats  before  the  real 
scenery  that  lies  temptingly  spread  along  the  borders 
of  the  "primrose  path."  He  had  all  the  more  merit 
in  thus  acting,  since  his  birth  and  youth  alone  would 
have  given  him  a  marked  position  in  the  front  rank  of 
the  endless  turmoil,  noise,  and  intrigue  which  make  up 
"  le  monde  ou  Von  s'amnse"  and  since  it  falls  to  the  lot  of 
Royal  and  Imperial  Princes  to  find  many  beautiful  and 
eminently  desirable  women,  enthusiastically  ready  to 
cross  in  their  favor  the  border-line  which  separates 
mere  indiscretion  from  something  far  worse. 

Since  the  day  when  he  found  his  "Dornroschen"  his 

58 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

whole  attitude  has  been  charmingly  chivalrous  and  ten- 
der towards  the  woman  he  loves,  and  who  so  truly  de- 
serves it.  This  grim  War  Lord's  chivalry  is  not  shift- 
ing but  permanent,  and  all  the  romance  within  him  has 
flowed  instinctively  and  ceaselessly  to  the  fair  girl  he 
found  asleep  amid  the  roses;  all  his  attentions  have 
clustered  around  her  footstool,  and  their  union  has  been 
an  absolutely  model  one,  with  a  great  love  and  a  great 
confidence  on  both  sides. 

Princess  Augusta-Victoria  of  Schleswig-Holstein-Son- 
derburg-Augustenburg  was  a  happy,  wholesome,  light- 
hearted  girl,  and  since  Prince  William's  visit  to  Schloss 
Prinkenau  a  curious  little  inward  glow,  a  sense  of  joy 
and  well-being  accompanied  her  everywhere,  mingling 
with  and  sweetening  whatever  she  thought  or  did. 

Something,  too,  had  changed  in  her  young  face,  a  soft 
change  which  came  and  went  with  all  her  dreams  of 
him,  intensified  by  a  grave,  gentle  smile,  pertaining  more 
to  the  eyes  than  to  the  lips,  when  she  pondered  upon  her 
own  good  chance  and  the  delicious  future  Fortune  had 
in  store  for  her.  Her  Prince  had  appeared,  and,  behold, 
his  presence  had  merged  with  and  intensified  her  "  joie 
de  vivre."  It  had  supplied  the  one  feature  needed  to  per- 
fect her  existence! 

The  Princess  was  neither  sentimental  nor  lackadaisi- 
cal-^she  had  far  too  much  sound  common-sense  and 
health  of  mind  for  that — but  a  curiously  deep  satisfaction, 
a  feeling  that  for  the  moment,  at  any  rate,  the  world  left 
nothing  to  be  wished  for,  made  her  already  extreme  kind- 
ness and  graciousness  of  heart  and  soul  yet  more  con- 
spicuously so,  her  light  step  more  airy,  her  unselfish- 
ness and  generosity  more  marked.  She  did  not  speak 
of  this  newly  found  love-treasure  of  hers,  but  her  very 
smile  said,  just  as  explicitly  as  her  voice  could  have 
done,  "I  am  very,  very  happy." 
s  59 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

She  had  awakened  out  of  her  sleep  in  the  hammock 
to  discover  a  stranger  -  Prince  who  suddenly  became 
to  her  the  person  of  first  importance  in  the  world,  by 
far  the  most  precious  and  dear,  and  it  gave  her  the  great- 
est of  great  joys  to  think  of  him  and  of  the  fact  that 
soon  he  would  be  all  in  all  to  her. 

No  wonder  that  infinite  admiration  of  her  filled  Prince 
William's  heart,  as  well  as  infinite  delight  at  the  knowl- 
edge that  he  would  henceforth  have  such  a  life's  com- 
panion, he  who  had  never  felt  a  real,  genuine,  heart- 
flutter  for  a  woman. 

Besides,  if  he  had  been — as  the  ever-eager  "  chronique 
scandaleuse  "  will  have  it — "in  love''  a  hundred  times, 
it  would  not  have  in  the  least  signified,  since  the  senti- 
ment he  entertained  for  her  was  as  distinct  from  that 
unfortunate  state  as  a  beautiful,  silvery,  softly  illumi- 
nating, and  all-embellishing  moon-ray  is  from  the  ir- 
ritating, depoetizing  glare  of  a  gas-flame. 

This  newly  found  tenderness  was  something  indescrib- 
ably sweet  to  him,  who  had  always  felt  so  much  alone, 
and  the  reaction  when  he  left  her  was  dreary  and  dis- 
piriting in  a  superlative  degree.  Fortunately  he  had 
her  letters  to  console  him,  to  put  the  clouds  to  flight,  or 
at  least  to  illumine  them  for  the  time  being  and  trans- 
figure all  around  him  with  a  roseate  glory. 

These  letters,  written  at  a  little  desk  gay  with  flowers, 
within  the  deep  embrasure  of  a  window  at  the  far  end  of 
a  cool,  mediaeval-looking  room,  overlooking  the  dense, 
velvety  verdure  of  the  park  at  Prinkenau,  were  enough 
to  hearten  and  cheer  the  most  inveterate  misanthrope, 
so  I  have  been  told,  for  she  wrote  as  if  her  pen  had  been 
dipped  in  a  drop  of  liquid  light,  and  a  ripple  of  pure 
happiness  and  joyful  hope  ran  through  every  line  she 
sent  him. 

All  those  around  her  benefited  by  her  sunny  state  of 

60 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

heart  and  mind,  for,  always  ready  to  aid  and  assist  every- 
body, she  was  now  doubly  so. 

Once  she  and  her  sister,  now  Princess  Frederick-Leo- 
pold of  Prussia,  were  walking  home  through  the  beauti- 
ful woods  which  surround  the  Schloss.  It  was  late  in 
the  afternoon,  and  already  in  the  west  the  sky  was  be- 
ginning to  put  on  the  gold-and-rose  splendor  of  its  bed- 
time hour;  the  air  was  inexpressibly  calm,  yet  the  green 
vault  above  the  two  young  girls  and  the  dense  under- 
growth at  their  feet  were  busy  with  mysterious  sound 
and  movement,  for  sable-winged  ravens  circled  far  over- 
head in  the  velvety  blue,  lapwings,  bees,  crickets,  butter- 
flies, and  tree-frogs  rustled  and  murmured  unseen,  while 
now  and  again  blackbirds  and  green-finches  gave  vent 
to  a  sweet,  shrill  note,  and  ring-doves  repeated  and  re- 
peated again  and  again  their  soft,  melodious  love-call 
before  tucking  their  gentle  little  heads  beneath  their 
silky  wings  in  sleep. 

Far  above  the  fair  pedestrians  in  the  narrow  bridle- 
path, between  the  two  flower-starred  walls  of  ferns  bor- 
dering it,  a  human  figure,  bent  and  burdened,  was  slowly 
moving,  dragging  a  hand-cart  loaded  with  fagots. 

As  the  Princesses  came  nearer,  they  saw  that  it  was  a 
very  old  woman,  ragged,  dusty,  barefoot,  and  incredibly 
wrinkled  and  toothless.  Pale,  pinched,  hungry,  weary, 
the  aged  crone  had  upon  her  withered  countenance  an 
expression  of  dogged  resolution  and  anxious  responsi- 
bility, pathetic  to  behold.  The  fagots  were  heavy,  and 
for  one  step  that  she  pulled  the  cart  forward  up  the 
hill  it  recoiled  two,  so  weak  were  her  old,  heavily 
veined,  brown  hands,  and  so  inadequate  to  the  task 
they  attempted  to  accomplish;  but  yet  she  was  facing 
the  ascent  resolutely  and  with  unconquerable  courage. 

Down  in  her  heart  the  poor  thing  was  evidently  filled 
with  terror  lest  the  little  cart  should  suddenly  escape 

61 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

from  her  feeble  hold,  and  go  crashing  down  the  incline 
into  the  valley  below,  for  then  what  could  she  do  ?  Yet 
she  uttered  no  murmur,  and  mastered  her  fears  as  she 
did  her  almost  complete  exhaustion,  with  that  dogged 
physical  endurance  which  is  the  one  ineradicable  qual- 
ity of  the  European  peasant  of  every  nationality. 

Without  a  second's  hesitation,  Princess  Augusta-Vic- 
toria motioned  to  her  sister  to  take  hold  of  one  of  the 
shafts,  while  she  grasped  the  other,  and  at  a  smart  trot 
the  fagot -laden  cart  was  drawn  triumphantly  up  the 
remainder  of  the  hill,  followed  by  its  amazed  and  be- 
wildered owner,  who,  with  arms  upheld  as  in  unconscious 
benediction,  hobbled  along  invoking  all  the  favors  of 
Heaven  upon  this  merry  "attelage"  of  Princesses. 

At  the  top  of  the  hill,  when  she  relinquished  the  res- 
cued fire- wood,  the  future  Empress  emptied  the  con- 
tents of  her  little  purse  into  the  thin,  trembling  hand  ex- 
tended to  resume  its  task,  and,  without  pausing  to  receive 
the  incoherent  thanks  of  the  pitiful  old  woman,  ran 
lightly  on,  racing  her  sister  to  the  very  portals  of  the 
castle. 

This  is  but  one  of  the  many  acts  of  kindness  performed 
by  the  Princess  during  that  period  of  perfect  bliss  which 
preceded  her  official  betrothal,  and  which  have  not  been 
forgotten  in  her  own  land,  you  may  be  sure. 

The  betrothal  ceremony  was  to  take  place  early  in  the 
following  winter,  but  the  sudden  death  of  the  Duke  of 
Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg  was  the 
cause  of  a  delay,  during  which  the  Princess's  new-found 
joy  was  often  drowned  in  bitter  tears. 

The  official  proclamation  of  the  engagement  took 
place  only  on  June  2,  1880,  at  the  Castle  of  Babelsberg, 
one  of  the  favorite  residences  of  William  the  Great. 

Babelsberg  is  a  beautiful  Gothic  building,  enthroned 
on  balustered  terraces,  with  countless  crenellated  towers 

62 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

and  turrets  overlooking  an  inner  "  Courd'Honneur  "  and 
a  formal  walled  garden  divided  by  yews  clipped  in  fantas- 
tic patterns.  Ivy  climbs  upon  the  walls,  and  so  pict- 
uresque is  the  whole  "  tout-ensemble  "  that  no  fitter  place 
could  have  been  chosen  for  the  ceremony. 

As  soon  as  the  fifty-four  distinguished  guests  had  as- 
sembled in  the  so-called  Round  Drawing-room,  the 
Grand-Master  of  the  Court,  Count  Schleinitz,  entered 
and  formally  announced  the  engagement  of  his  Royal 
and  Imperial  Highness,  Prince  William,  and  of  Her 
Highness  Princess  Augusta-Victoria  of  Schleswig-Hol- 
stein,  and  as  he  pronounced  the  last  words  the  double 
doors  at  the  upper  end  flew  open  and  the  fiancee  entered 
leaning  upon  the  arm  of  her  handsome  and  still  wonder- 
fully youthful  grandfather-in-law  that  was  to  be. 

The  Princess  looked  brilliantly  happy  and  sparkling; 
her  eyes  were  bent  down  upon  a  large  bouquet  of  lilies 
of  the  valley  and  white  roses  which  she  carried  in  her 
left  hand,  and  which  gleamed  softly  in  its  circlet  of 
dark-green  leaves  against  the  snowiness  of  her  long- 
trained  white  silk  dress.  Upon  her  sunny  head  was  set 
a  white  hat  covered  with  lilies  of  the  valley — "  Maiglock- 
chen  "  (May-bells),  as  they  so  prettily  call  them  over 
there,  and  six  rows  of  admirable  pearls  were  fastened  at 
her  throat  by  a  magnificent  diamond  clasp.  The  after- 
noon was  bright,  and  the  sun  flooding  in  through  the 
open  windows  shone  full  upon  her  and  upon  the  old  Em- 
peror, showing  distinctly  how  strong  and  powerful  this 
remarkable  man  still  was,  spite  of  time  and  all  that 
time  had  brought  of  fatigue,  anxiety,  and  danger;  how 
stalwart  in  his  perfectly  fitting  uniform,  with  his  ruddy 
complexion,  and  the  proud  and  gratified  expression  hov- 
ering around  his  lips  and  flickering  in  his  kindly,  honest 
eyes. 

At  a  sign  from  him,  Prince  William  advanced,  and,  of- 

63 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

fering  his  arm  to  his  betrothed,  led  the  cortege  to  the 
banqueting-hall,  where  a  splendid  lunch  was  prepared. 

Every  one  present  remarked  the  happiness  expressed 
in  the  Princess's  countenance,  and  which  seemed  to 
visibly  emanate  from  her  whole  graceful  person — the 
sparkle  of  her  radiant  blue  eyes,  in  which  there  was  a 
suggestion  of  beautiful  hidden  depths  of  love  and  ten- 
derness that  none  had  yet  fathomed.  Far  away  down 
in  these  depths  was  her  soul,  her  real  self,  which  had  been 
called  to  life  by  the  voice  of  her  Prince. 

And  the  Prince,  in  this  moment  when  she  was  being 
proclaimed  his  before  all  the  world,  gazed  at  her  with  a 
great  tenderness  in  his  eyes,  and  a  great  wonder,  too,  as 
if  he,  whose  thought  hitherto  had  ever  been  devoted  to 
her  happiness,  suddenly  saw  his  own  barren  and  rather 
sad  life  transformed  into  an  endless  succession  of  days 
bright  with  joy  and  hope. 

As  soon,  however,  as  he  felt  that  he  was  observed,  he 
froze  up  again  into  proud  reserve;  but  when  his  eyes 
were  irresistibly  drawn  anew  to  her,  her  influence  reas- 
serted itself  with  the  suddenness  of  a  ray  of  light  upon 
a  jewel,  transforming  him  utterly,  humanizing  him  as 
it  were,  and  melting  the  surcoat  of  ice  in  which  that 
famous  Hohenzollern  training,  and  other  circumstances 
too  long  to  recount,  had  managed  to  imprison  the  warm- 
hearted, ardent  youth  for  so  long. 

It  was  a  great  day  for  all,  this  betrothal  at  Schloss 
Babelsberg.  The  whole  castle  was  decorated  and 
wreathed  with  flowers,  palms,  and  blossoming  plants ;  the 
" creme  de  la  creme  "  the  very  "elite"  of  the  Prussian  aris- 
tocracy, was  present,  while  letters  and  telegrams  from 
hundreds  and  hundreds  of  well-wishers  arrived  con- 
stantly. Indeed,  it  was  an  event  which  had  had  no 
parallel  at  the  Court  of  Berlin  for  many,  many  years, 
for  was  not  this  love-match  between  the  heir  of  the 

64 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

Hohenzollerns  and  the  daughter  of  the  Duke  of  Schles- 
wig-Holstein — whose  patrimony  had  been  engulfed  in 
the  Kingdom  of  Prussia — also  a  sort  of  reparation,  the 
complete  eradication  of  a  feud  ? 

The  pretty  little  Duchies,  with  their  treasures  of 
lovely  forests  and  pasture-lands  which  "  Dornroschen  " 
loved  so  well,  were  going  to  be  hers  now,  once  and  for  all 
time.  Not  that  she  would  not  willingly  have  sacri- 
ficed fifty  Duchies  for  one  look  of  her  lover's  eyes;  but 
still  the  cannon  firing  joyful  salutes  from  the  keep  at 
Babelsberg  had  a  singularly  triumphant  and,  yes, 
peaceful  echo  in  response  to  its  warlike  din  on  that 
momentous  afternoon. 

Unfortunately  such  felicitous  hours  cannot  last  forever, 
and  soon  Prince  William,  separated  anew  from  his  Prin- 
cess, became  once  more  the  grim,  glum,  laconic  young 
man,  whom  so  few  understood  or  sympathized  with. 
Morose  and  listless,  as  if  every  vestige  of  sunshine  had 
again  been  torn  out  of  his  life,  he  turned  to  military 
pursuits  with  almost  passionate  energy,  in  order  to 
drive  away  the  persistent  melancholy,  the  unsatisfied 
yearning  engendered  by  her  absence. 

Interest  in  everything  pertaining  to  the  army  was 
so  deeply  inbred  a  characteristic  of  this  son  of  a  warrior 
race  that  he  really  loved  spending  his  days  in  drilling 
his  men,  his  evenings  in  poring  over  books  of  strategy  or 
the  ' '  Kriegspiel, ' '  which  both  in  Austria  and  in  Germany 
is  an  obligatory  occupation  for  staff-officers.  He  per- 
plexed himself  for  hours  together  as  to  whether  the  con- 
dition of  the  troops  in  peace  or  war  could  not  be  amelio- 
rated, and  he  was  a  truly  gallant  figure  when,  at  the 
head  of  his  men,  he  sent  his  commands  ringing  loud 
and  long  upon  the  early  morning  breeze  with  the  reso- 
nance of  steel  smiting  against  steel. 

It  was  noble  and  austere,  the  life  led  at  that  time  by 

6s 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

the  young  Prince,  but  it  was  lonely  and  monotonous, 
too,  at  an  age  when  one  cares  generally  for  diversion 
and  amusement;  still,  during  these  months  of  separation, 
the  remarkable  plans  which  later  on  were  to  bear  abun- 
dant fruit  and  cause  the  German  army  to  become  the 
first  and  foremost  in  the  world,  and  to  bring  into  exist- 
ence the  fine  German  navy  of  to-day,  were  first  origi- 
nated by  that  active  brain;  and  so  he  himself  must 
scarcely  now  regret  that  dreary  interval. 

Even  those  who  contemplate  a  contemporary  Mon- 
arch's life  with  that  sublime  indifference  which  is  the  only 
true  philosophy  ever  displayed  by  the  anti-monarchical, 
cannot  deny  that  Emperor  William's  career,  even  if 
merely  set  down  as  a  series  of  events,  would  make  what 
the  literary  critics  call  "good  reading."  Add  the  con- 
necting links  which  a  more  intimate  knowledge  of  the 
question  permits,  and  the  least  clever  of  writers  cannot 
but  present  to  the  reading  public  the  portrayal  of  a  man 
who  has  always  known  what  he  wanted,  and  has  reached 
his  aim  with  an  energy  seldom  encountered  in  this  age  of 
supreme  "veulerie." — I  apologize  humbly  for  using  French 
slang,  but,  as  it  happens,  there  is  no  word  in  English 
which  can  so  well  express  my  thoughts. — But  to  pursue. 

Prince  William  was  not  a  man  to  forget  what  he  con- 
sidered to  be  his  duty — you  may  rely  on  that.  He  might 
have  lived  a  pampered,  idle  life,  had  he  so  willed  it,  in 
some  sunshiny  little  garrison  town,  but  he  preferred 
Berlin  and  its  gray  skies,  its  unappreciative  atmosphere, 
constant  labor,  and  the  over-exertion  that  tastes  of  ut- 
ter weariness  at  times,  for  he  believed  that  an  army 
which  stood  so  conspicuously  in  the  front  as  did  that 
of  Prussia  in  1870-71  could  be  borne  on  to  yet  greater 
efficiency,  and  he  cherished  the  belief  that  he,  its  future 
Generalissimo,  was  the  man  responsible  for  its  ultimate 
welfare. 

66 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

Although  this  is  scarcely  yet  the  moment  for  me  to  en- 
ter into  that  portion  of  his  work — even  were  it  my  inten- 
tion to  do  so  at  length — it  might  be  mentioned  that  the 
important  new  army -laws  signed  by  Emperor  William  I. 
on  February  n,  1888 — a  few  weeks  before  his  death — 
and  which  were  the  starting-point  of  the  reforms  in  or- 
ganization that  have  brought  the  German  army  to  its 
present  state  of  almost  perfection,  were  inspired  in  a 
great  measure  by  Prince  William.  And  be  it  said 
again,  in  spite  of  all  that  was  murmured  at  the  time 
against  him,  both  in  Germany  and  abroad,  those  who 
had  eyes  to  see  must  have  then,  at  least,  perceived,  if 
looking  with  understanding  at  his  square  chin,  his  steady, 
brilliant  eyes  and  clean-cut  features,  that  they  stood  in 
the  presence  of  that  rare  and  invaluable  creation — a 
strong  man. 

The  power  of  concentration  is  a  gift  in  itself,  extreme- 
ly enviable,  and  this  gift  Prince  William  possessed  to  so 
unusual  a  degree  that,  whatever  his  study  or  pursuit 
of  the  moment,  he  gave  himself  up  to  it  body  and  soul. 

On  the  parade-ground  he  who  was  so  bitterly  and 
sneeringly  accused  of  caring  too  much  for  his  appearance 
and  dress,  gave  not  a  thought  to  his  muddy  boots  or 
to  the  condition  to  which  wind  and  weather  often  re- 
duced his  uniform,  but  went  through  all  the  routine 
duties  pertaining  to  his  rank  as  an  officer  with  a  punc- 
tiliousness and  thoroughness  which  seemed  almost  un- 
conscious and  mechanical,  as  indeed  it  may  well  have 
been,  since  his  brain  was  always  working  at  a  high  rate 
of  pressure  in  the  furtherance  of  his  favorite  schemes. 
Surely  there  is  nothing  finer  than  a  man  who  works 
with  his  brain  as  well  as  with  his  arm  at  one  and  the 
same  time. 

Fencing  was  at  that  period  Prince  William's  pet  rec- 
reation, and  it  was  really  a  pleasure  to  watch  him  in 

67 


IMPERATO.R    ET    REX 

what  the  French  call  an  ' '  assaut  d'armes. ' '  So  quick  were 
his  movements  that  the  eye  could  scarcely  follow  them ; 
truly  he  was  as  graceful,  lithe,  noiseless,  and  swift  as  a 
panther,  leaping  forward  and  falling  back  on  guard  like 
a  flash,  performing  a  hundred  tricks  of  the  fencing-floor 
with  marvellous  celerity,  and  touching  his  adversary  on 
shoulder,  arm,  and  chest  so  persistently  that  it  took  a 
very  first-class  blade  to  oppose  his.  He  never  awaited 
the  attack,  but  was  always  the  assailant,  and,  although 
in  those  bouts  his  "  fleuret "  was  naturally  quite  harm- 
less, yet  the  way  in  which  he  made  it  resound  through 
the  air  vividly  suggested  the  threatening  note  of  com- 
bative steel. 

Upright  and  still  and  thoughtful,  with  quiet,  remem- 
bering eyes,  speaking  but  little  in  his  gently  abrupt 
way — for  the  last  two  years  had  taught  him  to  weigh 
every  word  he  uttered,  and  he  never  said  more  than 
he  meant — such  was  the  fiance  awaiting  the  hour  that 
was  to  unite  him  to  the  woman  of  his  choice,  and  when- 
ever she  saw  him  he  conveyed  to  her  in  one  look  the 
knowledge  that  she  was  the  whole  world  to  him,  and 
that  his  love  and  boundless  trust  were  thrusting  upon 
her  the  greatest  responsibility  that  any  soul  can  carry 
—that  of  making  another  life  as  complete  a  happiness 
as  human  nature  is  permitted  to  obtain. 

She  herself  said,  just  before  leaving  her  dear  old 
home  to  make  her  formal  entrance  into  Berlin:  "I  do 
not  in  any  way  imagine  that  my  new  life  will  be  a  thorn- 
less  bed  of  roses,  but  I  have  faith,  and  Wilhelm  also, 
and  we  have  agreed  to  share  our  sorrows,  as  we  will  share 
our  joys,  so  that  the  burden,  whatever  it  may  be,  will 
never  be  too  heavy  for  our  joint  strength." 

This  creed,  without  compromise,  was  surely  a  touch- 
ing and  a  beautiful  one  for  a  young  girl  whose  destiny 
was  to  be  the  loftiest  which  the  world  has  to  offer,  but 

68 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

hers  was  that  fine,  steely  strength  which  endures  through 
a  lifetime  without  a  flaw,  that  profound,  unchangeable 
love  which,  when  her  eyes  rested  upon  him,  lighted 
them  up  with  a  gleam  that  was  strangely  adoring 
and  at  the  same  time  dimly  protecting  and  mater- 
nal. 

She  was  at  the  parting  of  the  ways,  was  Princess 
Augusta-Victoria;  none  could  point  out  her  path  ex- 
cepting herself,  but  that  path  was  an  assured  one,  since 
it  led  her  to  the  arms  of  the  man  who  was  all  in  all  to 
her,  and  whom  she  so  implicitly  trusted  that  she  would 
have  liked  to  cry  out  aloud  what  she  knew  him  to  be. 
She  was  sure  of  her  lover,  which  is  perhaps  happiness 
enough  for  this  world,  and  at  his  side  she  knew  that 
duty  would  be  made  easy. 

The  feudal  spirit,  which  is  as  strong  in  German  and 
Austrian  Princes  to-day  as  it  was  hundreds  of  years 
ago,  found  in  this  young  girl  a  very  lovable  expression. 
She  had  taken  it,  for  instance,  as  a  matter  of  course, 
that  it  was  her  duty  to  care  for  the  tenants  and  peasants 
on  the  Prinkenau  estate,  and  to  relieve  as  far  as  lay 
within  her  power  the  distress  which  comes  to  the  poor 
during  the  winter  especially,  and  when  the  time  came 
to  bid  them  good-bye  her  heart  grew  heavy.  Clad  in  a 
serviceable,  short,  tailor-made  frock  and  a  jacket  and 
cap  of  black  fur,  she  spent  the  greater  portion  of  the 
day  walking  from  cottage  to  cottage  giving  a  little  part- 
ing souvenir  wherever  she  went,  listening  patiently  to 
the  old  story  of  poverty  and  privation,  and  cheering 
the  tellers  with  her  radiant  smile,  her  quick  sympathy, 
and  her  whispered  promises  of  better  things  to  come. 
She  was  brisk  and  cheerful  in  her  well-doings,  this  gra- 
cious lady,  destined  to  ascend  the  steps  of  a  Throne,  al- 
though somewhat  intolerant  of  anything  that  savored 
of  laziness  or  lack  of  courage,  and  she  parted  with  a 

69 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

good  deal  of  sound   advice  during  her  swift  rambles 
along  the  frozen  paths  of  her  domain. 

The  snow  lay  thickly  upon  the  ground,  and  often  it 
was  quite  dark  when  she  returned  from  visiting  some 
distant  cottage  in  the  depths  of  the  pine-woods,  the 
trees  around  her  standing  grim  and  rigid,  braced  by  the 
iron  frost  to  bear  their  burden  of  icicles  without  creak 
or  rattle. 

There  is  no  silence  like  that  of  a  Northern  pine  forest 
in  winter,  nor  anything  half  as  magnificent  as  the  pict- 
ure it  presents  when  the  trees  are  snow-clad,  and  when 
the  silvery  twilight  of  the  crystallized  boughs  which 
conceal  the  noiseless  creatures,  furred  and  feathered,  that 
take  shelter  there,  meets  the  long,  golden  twilight  of. 
those  regions,  creeping  in  rosy  and  metallic  gleams  to- 
gether to  the  most  distant  corner  and  hiding-place. 

At  last,  just  on  such  an  evening,  the  Princess's  task 
came  to  its  end,  and  she  hurried  home  to  the  castle, 
glowing  from  its  dark  setting  of  evergreens  with  the 
brightness  of  a  rare  jewel.  Quickly  she  entered  the  hall 
where  the  portraits  of  her  warrior  ancestors  rose  one 
above  the  other  to  the  groined  and  heavily  carved  ceil- 
ing, and  ran  up -stairs  lightly  as  a  bird  to  take  leave  of 
the  house-servants.  Many  of  them  had  been  there  long 
ere  she  was  born;  some  of  them  had  told  her,  when 
she  was  as  yet  little  more  than  a  baby,  inspiring  family 
legends,  full  of  hazardous  exploits  and  daring  courage, 
narrations  pregnant  with  the  simple  and  unconscious 
grandeur  of  the  men  of  days  long  gone  by,  to  which 
she  had  listened,  her  blue  eyes  wide  open  and  fixed, 
fascinated  and  enthralled  until  the  last  word  had  been 
spoken  and  she  had  heard  in  imagination  the  last  charge 
of  cavalry  thunder  past,  the  last  droning  rattle  of  the 
murderous  arquebuses,  the  last  cry  of  triumph  from 
the  heroic  victors. 

70 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

Now,  too,  a  last  word  had  to  be  spoken,  and  it  was 
one  of  adieu  to  those  faithful  souls,  who  seemed  to  form 
part  of  her  own  family,  so  long  had  they  served  it. 
Bravely  their  young  mistress  held  back  her  tears  and 
left  to  them  all  the  remembrance  of  that  fascinating, 
brilliant  smile  of  hers,  so  winning  and  so  true;  and  when 
the  last  hand  had  been  pressed,  the  last  benedictions 
showered  upon  her  fair  head,  she  departed  from  Schloss 
Prinkenau,  where  she  had  lived  so  happily  and  peace- 
fully, accompanied  by  the  regrets  of  all. 

One  of  the  charms  of  Princess  Augusta-Victoria  was 
her  honesty  of  purpose ;  her  simplicity  of  manner,  which 
was  that  of  strength — comprising  much  gentleness  and 
excluding  all  violence.  Her  smile,  too,  was  full  of  loyal 
confidence,  and  showed  that  she  never  could  entertain 
a  doubt  about  accomplishing  her  intent.  She  had 
agreed  with  her  lover  that  as  long  as  life  endured  there 
would  never  be  any  foolish  misunderstandings  between 
them,  that  they  were  to  be  frank  in  all  things,  and  to 
take  frankness  each  from  the  other  without  offence,  that 
any  peril  to  be  encountered,  any  risk  to  be  run,  was  to 
be  divided  share  and  share  alike.  So  what  had  she  to 
fear  from  the  future?  Never  had  she  cared  so  much 
for  him,  never  had  she  recognized  his  value  so  thorough- 
ly as  at  the  moment  when  she  set  off  to  rejoin  him, 
no  more  to  leave  his  side.  His  words  of  love  seemed 
to  go  ringing  down  the  world  with  her,  persistent  in 
her  ears,  spoken  with  the  very  accent  of  his  voice.  She 
knew  that  she  would  hear  them  thus  to  the  end  of  time, 
and  gather  from  them  joy  and  courage. 


CHAPTER  IV 

IT  is  a  custom  with  the  Hohenzollerns  that  the  Prin- 
cesses with  whom  they  ally  themselves  should  start 
from  the  Castle  of  Bellevue  to  make  their  formal  entry 
into  Berlin;  and  at  sunrise  upon  the  morning  of  January 
27,  1 88 1,  the  men  employed  in  the  superb  greenhouses 
of  the  Thiergarten  were  already  busily  decorating,  not 
only  Bellevue  itself,  but  the  entire  "  parcours  "  to  be  fol- 
lowed by  the  bride's  cortege. 

This  was  to  be  a  very  gorgeous  pageant,  and  long  be- 
fore the  moment  when  her  great,  gilded  coach,  drawn 
by  eight  magnificent  black  horses,  made  its  appearance 
upon  the  rose-strewn  avenue  leading  to  the  "  Branden- 
burger-Thor"  thousands  upon  thousands  of  people 
lined  the  way — a  "  via  triumphalis  "  garlanded,  berib- 
boned,  and  oriflammed — which  later  on  was  to  resound 
with  the  loudest  cheers  and  hurrahs  heard  there  since 
the  return  of  the  victorious  Emperor  in  1871. 

The  crowd  was  amazingly  well  behaved,  and,  until 
a  flourish  of  trumpets  announced  the  approach  of  the 
fair  "fiancee"  silent  and  impressively  still,  although  it 
was  easy  to  perceive  that  every  now  and  then  a  thrill 
of  expectation  passed  like  a  wave  over  the  multitude, 
which  suddenly  swayed  against  the  cordon  of  soldiers 
standing  with  grounded  arms  all  the  way  from  the  gates 
of  Bellevue  to  those  of  the  Royal  Palace. 

The  whole  town  was  charmingly  decorated,  rich  and 
squalid  portions  alike,  the  palaces,  the  churches,  the 
hovels,  the  brilliant  emporiums  and  the  dark  little 

72 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

shops,  having  hung  out  flags  and  pennons,  draperies 
and  wreaths  of  green  twigs  of  oak  and  laurel  and  pine, 
in  enthusiastic  testimony  of  an  ardent  desire  on  the 
part  of  the  Berlinese  to  receive  this  future  Empress  fit- 
tingly. 

The  welcome  was  very  complete,  the  long  magnificence 
of  that  dazzling  procession,  the  great  thoroughfares  with 
crescents  and  stars  and  garlands  of  flowers  emblazoning 
all  the  houses,  the  exuberant  joy  of  the  people — every- 
thing, down  to  the  smallest  detail,  was  perfect,  and 
must  have  been  indeed  gratifying  to  the  new-comer. 

And  where,  meanwhile,  was  the  bridegroom?  With 
that  martial  coquetry  which  has  been  a  characteristic  of 
so  many  great  soldiers,  Prince  William  had  determined 
to  greet  his  "  fiancee  "  at  the  head  of  his  company  of  Foot 
Guards,  those  gigantic  soldiers  whose  towering  peaked 
shakos  of  white  metal,  and  uniforms  prodigal  of  gold  and 
embroidery  and  trappings — and  therefore  very  brilliant 
and  very  goodly  to  behold — remain  the  same  as  in  the 
days  of  Frederick  the  Great.  So,  ere  break  of  day,  he 
had  started  for  Potsdam  to  rejoin  his  men,  this  gal- 
lant, courageous,  generous  young  officer,  so  greatly  be- 
loved by  them,  and  a  few  moments  before  the  arrival 
of  his  bride  had  led  them,  "  musique  en  tete,"  into  the 
"  Cour  d'Honneur"  of  his  grandfather's  palace. 

The  meeting  of  the  lovers  was  one  of  the  prettiest 
sights  imaginable,  and  is  remembered  to  this  day  in 
Berlin.  The  bride,  after  alighting  from  her  great,  gilded 
coach,  advanced  a  step  or  two  towards  him,  her  exquisite 
white  robe  gleaming  and  glowing  as  she  moved,  and  the 
flowers  at  her  breast  looking  no  whiter  than  her  face — 
suddenly  blanched  with  deep  emotion — while  the  Prince, 
slender,  of  middle  height,  but  long  limbed  and  well 
knit  like  an  athlete,  took  her  hands  in  his,  bending  low 
over  them,  and  then  kissed  her  gently  on  both  cheeks. 

73 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

The  old  Emperor,  whose  face  was  positively  beaming 
with  joy,  made  the  premier-lieutenant  of  his  grandson's 
company  a  captain  on  the  spot,  so  as  to  enable  the 
Prince  to  leave  his  command  for  the  time  being,  and 
this  gracious  act  caused  a  moment  of  delighted,  intent 
silence — a  sort  of  pause  closed  by  the  drums  and  fifes 
thrilling  suddenly  with  a  startling  clearness,  like  a  sharp 
volley  of  applause,  diminishing  and  growing  again  in 
volume  as  the  colors  were  dipped  in  honor  of  the  bridal 
pair  and  the  promoted  officer. 

In  the  years  which  followed,  that  moment  was  to 
recur  again  and  again  to  the  recollection  of  those  pres- 
ent as  something  peculiarly  solemn  and  imposing.  The 
big  Grenadiers,  with  their  immense,  old-fashioned  head- 
gear, the  file  of  gilded  equipages,  the  palace  steps  thick- 
ly strewn  with  rose-petals,  the  young  people  gazing  so 
lovingly  at  each  other  under  the  benignant  contem- 
plation of  the  Great  Emperor,  the  newly  appointed  cap- 
tain, red  with  pride,  standing  at  attention  with  his  drawn 
sword,  and  behind  him  the  drums  and  fifes  calling 
loudly  and  then  dwindling  to  a  sort  of  soft  martial 
rhythm,  beckoning,  as  it  were,  the  bridal  pair  towards  a 
brilliant  future — all  these  details  made  up  a  picture  of 
which  no  lapse  of  time  can  ever  quite  efface  the  splendid 
coloring  and  happy  significance. 

The  wedding  was  in  itself  a  truly  Regal  ceremony. 
The  chapel  of  the  castle,  a  spacious  and  lofty  octagonal 
building  in  the  Byzantine  polychromatic  style,  shim- 
mering in  a  haze  of  dazzling  light,  was  filled  with  flow- 
ers and  crowded  with  exquisitely  gowned  women  and 
men  in  glittering  uniforms.  Among  the  guests  were 
Their  Majesties  of  Saxony,  Grand  Duke  Alexis,  Crown 
Prince  Rudolph  of  Austria,  the  Crown  Prince  and  Crown 
Princess  of  Sweden,  the  Prince  of  Wales  (now  King  Ed- 
ward VII.),  the  Grand  Duchess  of  Baden,  Princess  Chris- 

74 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

tian,  the  Duke  of  Edinburgh  and  his  Duchess  (nee 
Grand  Duchess  Marie-Alexandrowna  of  Russia),  the  late 
Duke  of  Aosta,  and  a  score  of  other  illustrious  person- 
ages, followed  by  their  Ladies  and  Gentlemen -in-wait- 
ing, all  attired  with  the  greatest  magnificence. 

The  bride  herself,  who  looked  remarkably  to  her  ad- 
vantage, wore  white  -  and  -  silver  brocade  and  priceless 
antique  lace  clasped  with  flashing  diamond  buckles 
which  supported  trails  of  freshly  gathered  myrtle  and 
orange  blossoms.  On  her  blond  head  the  crown  of 
Prussia's  Princesses  sparkled  above  a  tiny  fringe  of  myr- 
tle, and  her  long  lace  veil  enwrapped  her  with  a  sort 
of  delicately  vaporous  mystery.  Her  tall,  exquisitely 
modelled  figure  carried  off  the  Hohenzollern  diamonds 
to  perfection,  and  as  she  walked  down  the  aisle,  lean- 
ing on  the  arm  of  her  young  husband,  an  audible  murmur 
of  approval  made  itself  heard  —  a  great  and  unusual 
tribute  in  an  assembly  which  few  sights  are  capable  of 
pleasing  or  of  astonishing.  Her  train  was  carried  by  her 
four  bridesmaids  —  the  Countesses  Victoria  Bernstoff, 
Pauline  Kalckreuth,  Mathilda  Keller,  and  Mathilda  Puck- 
ler,  accompanied  by  the  Princess's  Grand  Mistress  of  the 
Robes,  Countess  Brockdorff — and  as  the  procession  left 
the  altar  thirty -six  salvos  of  artillery  boomed  forth,  al- 
most drowning  Handel's  "Hallelujah"  chorus  rolling 
grandly  from  the  organ.  Slowly  and  imposingly  the 
cortege  returned  to  the  "  Weisse-Saal, "  from  which  they 
had  started,  and  where  a  "  Defiler-Cour  "  now  took  place, 
followed  by  a  "  diner  de  gala  "  in  the  " Rittersaal." 

During  all  this  trying  ordeal  Princess  William — as  she 
was  henceforth  to  be  called — bore  herself  with  the  most 
charming  simplicity  and  self-possession;  she  seemed  to 
have  a  fresh  smile  for  each  new  person  presented  to  her, 
and  yet  there  was  not  in  her  attitude  the  least  little  bit 
of  that  modern  forwardness  which  passes  under  the 
6  75 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

name  of  "  bonne  camaraderie,"  for  she  was  "  ires  Grande 
Dame"  which  is  the  highest  compliment  one  can  pay 
even  to  a  Royal  Lady. 

Moreover,  her  graceful  uprightness  of  carriage  and  the 
wholesome  rose  of  her  fresh,  young  face,  distinguished  her 
at  once  among  the  pallid  "mondaines"  surrounding  her, 
and  made  her  remarkable,  as  some  free  and  dignified 
denizen  of  the  forest  in  the  midst  of  domesticated  lions, 
or,  to  be  less  grandiloquent,  like  a  pure,  dew-washed,  fra- 
grant, open-air  blossom,  raising  its  dainty  corolla  above 
an  intoxicatingly  perfumed  mass  of  forced  hot -house 
blooms. 

Added  to  this  she  had  more  to  say  than  other  girls, 
whether  Royal  or  otherwise,  a  larger  stock  of  knowl- 
edge, a  wider  range  of  serious  thoughts,  and  in  giving 
expression  to  them  she  looked  brighter,  prettier,  and 
more  intelligent  than  they — a  novelty,  indeed,  after  the 
small-change  of  ordinary  Court  gossip.  Nor  is  it  a  small 
thing  to  be  exposed  to  the  flash  of  experienced  eyes, 
which  see  without  appearing  to  look,  and  to  please 
those  mercilessly  critical  optics,  and  yet  everybody  was 
unanimously  conscious  that  her  presence  caused  a  curi- 
ous "frafokeut"  and  vitality  to  permeate  the  atmosphere, 
like  a  breath  of  reviving  and  bracing  air  in  a  close 
place. 

All  those  assembled  there  to  wish  her  luck  were  pleas- 
urably  surprised,  and  there  was  a  general  sense  of  joyful 
relaxation  as  the  illustrious  guests  took  their  places 
around  the  brilliantly  lighted  board,  groaning  beneath 
its  weight  of  massive  gold  and  silver  plate,  banks  of 
exotics,  Venetian  crystal,  and  pyramids  of  superb  fruit. 
Everybody's  characteristics  became  rather  more  ac- 
centuated than  before,  every  one  was  at  Philharmonic 
pitch  and  at  his  or  her  very  best. 

Popularity  and  lasting  appreciation  would  have  fol- 

76 


PRINCE    HENRY    OF    PRUSSIA,    BROTHER    OF    THE    EMPEROR 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

lowed  this  excellent  first  impression  as  naturally  as  day 
follows  night,  but  unfortunately  those  accustomed  to 
read  the  signs  of  favor  or  disfavor  in  a  monarchical  firma- 
ment, felt  at  once  that  there  was  hidden  deep  below  the 
surface-welcome  accorded  to  the  Princess  an  icy  under- 
current, which  it  would  not  be  advisable  to  stem  or  to 
disregard,  for  so  to  do  would  be  to  affront  some  of  the 
powers  that  were.  Therefore  the  seeds  of  much  that 
became  painful  later  on  were  sown  in  that  very  hour. 

According  to  an  ancient  custom  dating  as  far  back 
as  the  Middle  Ages,  the  younger  Hohenzollern  Princesses 
waited  upon  the  Emperor  and  Empress,  the  King  and 
Queen  of  Saxony,  and  the  bridal  couple,  and  at  dessert 
the  aged  Head  of  the  House  rose  and  proposed  the 
health  of  Prince  and  Princess  William,  in  terms  so  ten- 
der and  affecting  that  his  words  thrilled  many  hearts 
with  a  warmth  not  felt  for  years. 

Prince  William  himself  looked  as  if  he  were  a  little 
dazed;  his  bride's  all-pervading  charm  made  him  per- 
chance once  again  distrust  himself  as  utterly  as  he  had 
done  before  on  the  other  great  occasions  of  his  life;  this 
newly  found  joy  of  his  was  so  intense  that  it  started 
upon  him  as  if  he  had  hitherto  been  asleep  in  a  dark 
room  and  had  now  awakened  to  find  it  suddenly  blaz- 
ing with  lights.  Artistically  speaking,  the  change  should 
have  been  modulated  a  little  more,  for  it  was  just  a  shade 
too  abrupt  for  comfort,  a  little  too  Wagnerian  in  its 
violent  change  of  key,  and  for  once,  while  his  grand- 
father was  speaking,  he  was  thrown  off  his  guard,  his 
breast  heaved  with  intense  emotion,  his  blue  eyes  shone 
through  a  mist,  and  the  white  line  of  his  teeth  just 
showed  closely  pressed  on  his  under-lip.  But  "  Bah!" 
happiness  does  not  unfocus  one  for  long,  even  when  one 
is  unused  to  it,  and  it  is  comparatively  easy  to  adjust 
one's  self  to  a  new  view  of  things  when  these  things  are 

77 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

pleasant.  His  beloved  grandsire's  eloquent  phrases, 
which  said  enough,  but  not  too  much,  of  the  past  and  the 
future,  with  a  grace  entirely  remote  from  a  form  of  ad- 
dress generally  halting  and  somewhat  uncouth,  gave  him 
time  to  recover  his  perfect  equanimity,  and  few  noticed 
this  strange  little  break  in  his  customary  composure. 

A  woman  is  never  too  young  or  too  old,  too  guileless 
or  too  innocent,  to  be  averse  to  the  thought  that  she 
can  charm,  and  the  bride  was  not  insensible  to  the  deli- 
cate compliments  paid  her  in  that  gracious  speech,  and 
which  throughout  dinner  in  that  great  hall  had  been 
laid  at  her  feet  by  many  of  those  present;  while  the 
guests  seated  at  that  magnificent  table  murmured 
among  themselves  that  this  golden-haired,  soft-cheeked, 
lace-enwrapped  "  Mariee  "  was  "  jolie  a  croquer"  as  she 
chatted  frankly,  unaffectedly,  and  pleasantly,  now  and 
again  resting  a  glance  of  tender  affection  upon  the 
stately  figure  of  the  aged  Emperor,  or  one  of  deep 
love  upon  her  young  husband. 

At  last  the  boom  of  cannon  was  heard  in  a  final  sa- 
lute, and  the  "  Herrschaften "  rose  to  return  to  the 
White-Hall,  where  the  "  Fackeltanz  "  was  to  take  place. 

This  form  of  entertainment — by  no  means  an  unquali- 
fied entertainment,  but  a  mere  matter  of  form  and  time- 
honored  usage,  infinitely  boring  for  the  participants, 
and  not  very  attractive  for  on-lookers,  satiated  with  such 
pageants — began  as  soon  as  the  Emperor  and  Empress, 
together  with  their  Royal  guests,  had  disposed  them- 
selves on  and  around  the  dais. 

The  "Polonaise  "  was  preluded  by  a  brilliant  chromatic 
passage  compelling  silence,  and  the  twelve  Cabinet  Min- 
isters, who  were  to  act  as  torch -bearers,  advanced  tow- 
ards the  bridal  pair,  preceded  by  the  Grand  Master  of 
the  Ceremonies  tapping  his  ivory  wand  of  office  upon 
the  polished  floor. 

78 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

Suddenly  the  call  of  a  silver  trumpet  thrilled  through 
space  like  a  vibrating  spear  of  sound,  and  at  the  mo- 
ment when  the  twelve  Excellencies  stepped  forth  two 
by  two,  followed  by  Prince  and  Princess  William,  hand 
in  hand,  that  call  broke  like  quicksilver  into  a  thousand 
rounded  fragments  of  harmony,  collecting  themselves 
again,  quavering  and  trilling,  and  ceasing  only  for  a 
few  seconds,  quite  abruptly,  when,  having  returned  to 
the  Throne,  the  Prince  and  Princess  bowing  low  before 
the  Emperor,  the  procession  started  anew,  accompanied 
this  time  by  the  handsome  old  Monarch  himself,  while 
the  dazzling  crowd,  forming  a  much  bediamonded  and  be- 
starred  hedge  on  both  sides,  bent  at  their  approach  and 
straightened  itself  again  like  a  field  of  shimmering  wheat 
after  a  gust  of  breeze  has  passed  over  it. 

In  this  fashion,  and  always  preceded  by  the  ministe- 
rial torch-bearers,  the  bride  and  groom  performed  cir- 
cuit after  circuit  of  the  great  hall,  she  between  two 
Kings  or  Princes,  he  between  two  Queens  or  Princesses, 
a  rather  harassing  and  tiring  ceremony,  but  during 
which  the  honors  were  severely  and  justly  divided — the 
Courts  of  Berlin,  Vienna,  and  St.  Petersburg  being  the 
only  palaces  nowadays  where  scrupulous  exactitude  is 
still  observed  in  such  matters,  and  where  no  "passe- 
droits  "  are  ever  allowed. 

At  last  the  end  came.  The  long-suffering  twelve  were 
relieved  of  their  torches  by  twelve  gorgeously  attired 
pages,  and  the  now  slowly  paling  luminaries  were  used 
to  light  the  newly  married  couple  to  their  apartments. 

During  all  this  time  an  army  of  Court  lackeys  and 
small  officials  were  arranging  with  a  great  deal  of  method 
and  quickness  the  endless  array  of  wedding  gifts  to  be 
displayed  on  the  morrow  "  en  grand  gala." 

It  seemed  for  the  time  being  as  if  chaos,  a  brilliant 
one,  had  resumed  its  reign,  or  as  if  all  the  great  shops  of 

79 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

the  universe  had  been  sacked  and  their  contents  poured 
into  the  Royal  palace. 

Here  stood  a  collection  of  marvellous  Dresden-china 
vases,  big  enough  to  hold  AH  Baba  and  his  forty  advent- 
urous companions,  there  some  superb  bronzes  were 
huddled  together  for  company  against  rolls  upon  rolls 
of  priceless  rugs  and  embroideries,  creeping  like  a  tide 
of  rainbow  hues  to  where  richly  framed  pictures  and  ex- 
quisite engravings  lay  prostrate. 

Here  again  a  mountain  of  ' '  ecrins  ' '  revealed  their  blaz- 
ing contents  of  diamonds,  pearls,  rubies,  emeralds,  and 
sapphires,  where  they  were  piled  upon  cushions  of  deep 
purple,  while  half  a  hundred  pieces  of  gold  and  silver 
plate  gleamed  beneath  the  flame  of  the  countless 
candelabra  wherewith  the  place  was  illuminated  "a  gi- 
orno." 

All  night  through  the  work  proceeded,  and  at  dawn 
order  had  emerged  triumphantly  from  chaos,  and  the 
splendid  gifts  sent  by  the  cities  small  and  big  of  the 
German  Confederation,  as  well  as  those  presented  by 
family  and  friends,  were  artistically  disposed  amid  flow- 
ers and  palms  to  the  entire  satisfaction  of  the  most 
exacting  taskmaster. 

The  extraordinary  rapidity  and  perfection  with  which 
all  these  difficult  manoeuvres  were  accomplished  and 
brought  in  time  to  so  gratifying  an  end,  were  to  be 
placed  to  the  credit  of  a  system  inaugurated  then  by 
that  arch-organizer  Prince  William,  and  which  to  this 
day  is  scrupulously  observed  upon  any  occasion  of  cere- 
mony at  the  Court  of  Berlin. 

On  what  we  call  in  Brittany  the  "  Retour  de  Noces  " 
namely,  the  "post-wedding-day,"  a  magnificent  banquet 
was  given  at  the  palace,  to  which  were  bidden  all  the 
Royalties  and  Princes  then  in  Berlin,  the  Diplomatic 
Corps  and  Special  Envoys,  the  Ministers  of  State,  the 

80 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

Knights  of  the  Black  Eagle,  and  a  host  of  other  great 
dignitaries. 

The  White-Hall  resounded  with  the  sound  of  many 
voices,  German,  English,  French,  Russian,  Italian,  and 
Spanish,  mingling  in  the  perfume-laden  air.  A  mile  of 
torches  lighted  the  guests  to  the  palace,  which  was 
itself  a  blaze  of  glory,  while  the  "  Weisse-Saal "  was 
displayed  to  the  utmost  advantage  by  means  of  tall 
' '  torcheres ' '  burning  rosily  in  capricious  tongues  of 
shimmering  flame. 

This  exquisite  illumination  exhibited  vividly  the  great, 
purple  Throne,  raising  upon  this  background  with  clear 
distinctness  the  arms  of  the  Reigning  House,  encircled 
by  their  bold  motto,  and  Prince  William,  totally  un- 
moved in  appearance,  several  times  fixed  his  gleaming 
blue  eyes  upon  the  spot  where  they  stood  out  in  sharp 
relief.  There  was  yet  observable  at  such  moments  a 
curious  tightening  of  the  lips,  which  gave  the  impres- 
sion that  his  soul  was  just  then  diffused  through  the 
net-work  of  his  nervous  system,  and  that  every  individ- 
ual nerve  was  thrilling  with  strongly  repressed  emotion. 

The  grand  hall  was  hedged  with  immense  palms  and 
exotics,  and  the  harmonious  twitter  of  stringed  instru- 
ments accompanied  "  en  sourdine  "  the  gay  chatter  of  the 
brilliant  throng.  The  festive  board  itself  was  regally 
sumptuous,  beneath  its  load  of  precious  plate  and 
priceless  crystal  and  china;  graceful  garlands  of  white 
and  pink  orchids  meandering  from  one  cluster  of  myr- 
tle, orange,  and  snowy  roses  to  the  other. 

Pages  clad  in  scarlet  and  gold,  with  jewelled  rapiers 
at  their  side — for  they  were  all  of  gentle  birth — and  scar- 
let-plumed cavalier  hats  slung  upon  their  shoulders  by 
silken  cords,  attended  and  served  the  Emperor,  Em- 
press, Prince  and  Princess  William,  and  their  Royal 
guests. 

Si 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

The  bride  wore  a  rich  satin  gown  veiled  by  precious 
lace,  and  a  priceless  necklace  of  diamonds,  matching 
those  of  the  diadem  crowning  her  shapely  head,  and, 
although  every  eye  was  riveted  upon  her  during  most 
of  the  time,  she  did  not  appear  to  be  the  least  shy,  self- 
conscious,  or  embarrassed.  This  was  not  a  woman 
to  be  overlooked,  for  there  was  nothing  insignificant 
about  her;  on  the  contrary,  she  would  have  been  dis- 
tinguished anywhere  and  in  any  company.  Her  keen, 
proud,  but  yet  soft  glance,  her  low  but  clear,  pene- 
trating voice — one  of  those  voices  that  without  being 
raised  in  the  slightest  degree  are  audible  in  every 
corner  of  a  room — the  mixture  of  simplicity  and  dignity 
which  so  greatly  characterized  her  every  gesture,  proved 
superabundantly  that  this  was  indeed  a  woman  born 
to  be  an  Empress. 

The  banquet  of  that  night,  the  gala  opera  by  which 
it  was  followed,  were  gone  through  by  all  with  unflag- 
ging spirit.  Everything  had  been  superbly  done,  for 
the  former  traditions  of  the  House  of  Hohenzollern  were 
not  merely  equalled  but  greatly  surpassed,  and,  as 
nothing  succeeds  like  success,  Princess  William,  with 
such  a  debut  as  a  stepping-stone,  would  have  entered 
at  one  bound  into  the  good  graces  of  her  young  hus- 
band's future  subjects,  had  it  not  been  for  the  conster- 
nation caused  in  certain  breasts  by  this  enthusiastic 
reception,  a  consternation  which  begot  an  emphatic 
and  strangely  ungenerous  desire  to  crush  her  down  as 
speedily  as  possible. 

At  Court,  as  in  all  places  where  ambitions  flourish  in 
a  favorable  soil,  new  arrivals  have  not  always  a  very  good 
time  of  it ;  it  is  every  one  for  himself  and  the  devil  take 
the  hindmost — as  the  good  old  sporting  phrase  goes! 
All  the  more  is  it  so  when  private  jealousies  are  rampant, 
for  then  mischief  is  surely  brewing.  Princess  William's 

8? 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

individuality  was  too  marked  and  too  rare,  she  was 
too  uncommon  in  her  grave,  kindly  way,  too  refreshing 
in  her  total  lack  of  affectation  amid  the  artificial  graces 
of  our  machine-made  age,  not  to  arouse  such  hostile 
feelings.  And,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  she  did. 

On  March  2d,  the  young  couple  made  their  entry 
into  Potsdam,  where  they  were  henceforth  to  live. 
They  were  both  very  happy,  and  looked  joyfully  for- 
ward to  the  pleasure  of  organizing  their  palace  and 
Household — modest  ones  it  is  true,  but  complete,  and 
possessing  the  supreme  charm  of  being  all  their  own — a 
home  to  found  and  lovingly  build  up  with  the  all-pre- 
vailing German  "  gemuthlichkeit " — a  word  for  which  I  can 
find  no  English  equivalent,  unfortunately,  expressing, 
as  it  does,  the  charm  of  the  kindly  atmosphere  of  loving 
companionship  and  mutual  dependence  which  pervades 
the  homes  of  the  Fatherland,  whether  of  the  peasant  or 
the  Prince.  And  especially  they  had  each  other. 

The  young  husband,  just  turned  twenty  -  three,  no 
longer  brooded  in  his  loneliness.  His  "  Dornroschen  " 
had  come,  and,  behold,  her  presence  supplied  the  element 
needed  to  make  life  acceptable  to  him  whatever  might 
come  to  pass.  Every  subject,  all  subjects,  subjects  the 
most  discrepant,  seemed  to  possess  now  one  common 
property,  that  of  leading  him  straight  to  her.  Out- 
wardly, to  all  seeming,  assurance  was  the  key-note  of 
the  Prince's  conduct,  though  when  alone  his  assurance 
had  a  knack  of  giving  place  to  a  very  real  diffidence; 
but  his  marriage  made  all  the  difference  in  the  world 
in  this  respect,  for  she,  the  fair  young  wife,  could  see  no 
flaws  in  her  idol;  he  was  her  hero,  and  all  that  he  did  or 
thought  seemed  to  her  so  faultless  that  it  was  next  to 
impossible  for  him  to  relapse  into  his  gloomy  fits,  or,  if 
he  did,  she  soon  dispelled  the  doubting,  torturing 
moods.  Her  air  of  perfect  ease,  of  perfect  confidence, 

83 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

accelerated  his  recovery  in  that  direction,  while  her 
light,  gay  laughter  would  have  brightened  the  darkest 
spot  on  earth.  His  nervousness,  his  excitability,  soon 
entirely  left  him,  and  the  atmosphere  around  him  seemed 
to  become  permeated  with  a  curious  satisfaction,  a  feel- 
ing that  he  had  now  little  left  to  wish  for,  that  to  be 
with  her  in  that  sweet  and  complete  companionship 
for  which  he  had  yearned,  was  enough. 

His  consciousness  of  her  always  beside  him  filled  him 
with  a  delight  that  seemed  absolutely  ultimate.  Each 
hour,  each  minute,  that  hurried  on  its  way,  was  a  mutu- 
al experience  drawing  them  closer  and  closer  together, 
helping  to  complete  that  marvellous  understanding 
which  has  never  ceased  growing  and  perfecting  itself 
now  for  more  than  twenty-three  years. 

They  lived  a  very  retired,  very  quiet  existence  at  first, 
spending  many  an  evening  alone  at  home  reading,  chat- 
ting, singing  old  German  duets  and  ' '  Volkslieder, ' '  or 
else  simply  sitting  side  by  side  in  front  of  the  bright, 
dancing  fire  in  silent  communion,  contemplating  the 
fantastic  flames,  pale  rose  with  dark -red  shadows,  hiss- 
ing softly  against  the  scintillant  background  of  consum- 
ing wood,  enjoying  the  same  pleasantness  of  environ- 
ment— such  trifles  making  up  the  restful  "tout  ensem- 
ble" he  had  been  unconsciously  needing  all  along. 

And  now  one  would  have  expected  them  to  spend  the 
remainder  of  their  natural  days  in  thankful  tranquillity ; 
but  no,  Fate  holds  no  such  peace,  especially  where  Kings 
are  concerned,  and,  although  they  did  not  know  it,  their 
horizon  was  even  then  gradually  becoming  obscured  by 
the  portentous  clouds  of  a  storm,  which,  had  it  not  been 
for  the  slender,  graceful  woman  ever  at  his  side,  her 
sympathetic  eyes  bright  with  encouragement,  he  would 
have  found  much  difficulty  in  withstanding. 

In  the  month  of  May  following  their  marriage  Prince 

84 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

and  Princess  William  went  to  Vienna  to  be  present  at 
the  wedding  of  Crown  Prince  Rudolph  of  Austria,  and 
the  contrast  between  the  bride  of  two  months  and  the 
bride  that  was  to  be  was  so  marked,  so  disheartening 
for  those  who  loved  "Rudi,"  and  had  his  welfare  at 
heart,  that  it  seemed  a  positive  cruelty  to  the  prospec- 
tive bridegroom  to  have  made  it  possible  for  him  to 
compare  the  happiness  of  his  friend  Prince  William 
with  the  barrenness  of  feeling  his  own  fiancee  in- 
spired. 

Princess  Augusta- Victoria  was  tall,  but  Stephanie 
seemed  a  good  deal  taller,  thanks  to  her  sinewy,  bony 
leanness — "Ses  coudes  sont  des  aiguilles  a  tricoter!" 
Empress  Elizabeth  used  to  say.  Her  spare  figure,  spare 
and  angular,  held  unswervingly  to  the  perpendicular, 
and  looked  as  if  entirely  constructed  of  nothing  but 
bone  and  tendon.  The  German  Princess's  yellow  hair 
curling  in  delicately  soft  tendrils  gleaming  like  gold,  her 
pink-and-white  camellia-like  skin,  and  her  deep-blue 
eyes,  full  of  laughter  at  one  moment,  glowing  with  sym- 
pathy, with  affection,  with  love,  at  others,  ever  change- 
ful and  fascinating,  were  delightful  to  behold,  and  made, 
alas !  yet  more  conspicuous  the  dull,  dun  complexion,  the 
lustreless  tresses  bound  closely  and  ungraciously  to  the 
unduly  elongated  head,  and  the  expressionless  eyes  of 
the  Belgian.  The  very  clothes  of  the  two  Royal  girls 
still  further  emphasized  their  extreme  unlikeness: 
Augusta -Victoria's  exquisitely  fitting  gowns,  simple 
but  "chic"  in  their  effect,  showing  her  careful  and 
dainty  in  every  detail;  Stephanie's  magnificent  apparel, 
somehow  or  other,  in  spite  of  all  efforts  on  the  part 
of  maids  and  "couturiers  "  and  of  her  own  love  of  glitter 
and  display,  proclaiming  her  by  the  mere  way  in  which 
she  wore  it  a  woman  who  never  gave  two  thoughts 
to  that  delicious  "recherche"  and  refinement  which 

85 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

make  even  a  Parisian  "  grisette"  appear  well  dressed  in 
her  plain  black  frock  and  immaculate  "  dessous." 

I  remember  very  distinctly  how  on  one  occasion  Em- 
press Elizabeth  watched  these  two  conversing  together; 
at  first  vaguely,  but  by-and-by  with  a  strange,  continued 
absorption,  her  lovely  face  assuming  gradually  an  almost 
austere  expression  in  its  sorrowful  foreboding.  What 
they  were  talking  about  it  was  impossible  to  hear  across 
the  great  drawing-room,  but  it  was  perfectly  plain  that 
the  young  wife  of  the  Prussian  Heir  Presumptive  was 
in  one  of  her  gayest  and  most  delightful  moods,  her 
hand  resting  for  a  moment  on  Stephanie's  pointed 
shoulder,  and  again  and  again  gently  patting  it,  her 
beaming  face  speaking  louder  than  words. 

"You  don't  know  how  blissful  married  life  is!"  One 
could  not  but  be  certain  that  that  was  what  she  was 
saying,  and  it  must  have  been  a  longish  story  she  had 
to  tell,  as  well  as  a  gleeful  one,  but  apparently,  also,  the 
manner  in  which  it  was  received  was  not  pleasing,  for 
her  face,  at  first  all  aglow  with  pleasure,  slowly  sobered, 
darkened,  and  expressed  disapprobation,  till  finally  all 
animation  and  trustfulness  had  vanished  from  its  mo- 
bile features. 

The  watching  Empress's  beautiful  countenance  had 
paled,  her  magnificent  eyes  were  graver  than  I  had  ever 
seen  them,  and  her  glance  was  heavy  with  significance 
as  it  rested  on  the  group  and  lingered  almost  reproach- 
fully upon  the  long,  cold,  colorless  silhouette  of  her 
daughter-in-law  that  was  to  be.  There  were  sad  and 
angry  things  in  that  look,  mingled  with  pain  and  al- 
most terror.  At  last  she  drew  a  deep,  shuddering  breath. 
"God  is  angry  with  the  Habsburgs,"  she  murmured. 
"Ah!  my  poor  Rudi,  my  poor  boy,  what  a  fate!" 

Her  pupils  had  widened,  as  they  had  a  way  of  doing 
when  she  was  deeply  moved,  her  voice  was  hushed  to  a 

86 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

whisper.  It  would  have  been  merciful  could  an  angel 
have  drawn  an  impenetrable  curtain  before  those  eyes 
so  cruelly  far-seeing,  which  read  something  as  awful 
as  God's  anger  in  the  union,  of  her  beloved  son  to 
the  woman  who  was  to  wreck  his  life.  Surely  that  mo- 
ment was  unforgettable,  and  equally  unforgettable  the 
weary,  dismayed  sound  of  the  Empress's  voice  as  she 
said,  half  aloud,  to  herself:  "I  am  sick  with  pity  for 
Rudi.  Why  could  not  he  also  have  found  a  woman  he 
could  have  loved  and  who  would  have  loved  him,  a 
woman  like  that  charming  girl  yonder  ?  This  is  as  bad 
as  suicide!" 

It  must  have  been,  since  it  led  to  it! 

There  are  in  the  lives  of  most  human  beings  passing 
moments  or  words  which  leave  a  deep  and  lasting 
impression  upon  the  mental  retina,  and  which  hold  fast 
to  the  very  sinews  of  our  souls  as  if  they  had  caught 
somewhere  in  an  inner  wheel  and  had  persistently 
clung  there  ever  since.  Of  this  nature  was  the  scene 
I  have  just  described,  for  it  was  instantaneously  graven 
upon  my  memory,  never  to  leave  it  from  that  day  forth. 

Princess  William  created  a  most  lastingly  delightful 
impression  at  the  Court  of  Vienna.  She  was  not  one 
who  looked  upon  her  exalted  rank  as  an  opportunity 
to  turn  her  back  to  the  responsibilities  of  life  and  to 
hasten  away  to  a  round  of  perpetual  amusement,  for, 
like  her  husband,  she  took  a  vivid  interest  in  the  serious 
and  responsible  side  of  a  Ruler's  existence.  She  stayed 
but  a  short  time  in  the  gay  Austrian  capital  on  that 
particular  occasion,  but,  nevertheless,  she  succeeded  in 
endearing  herself  to  everybody,  from  the  Emperor  and 
Empress  downward,  old  and  young  alike  quickly  suc- 
cumbing to  her  charm  of  manner  and  radiant  presence. 

Her  vocation  as  the  very  embodiment  of  the  perfect 
wife  and  mother  shone  already  then  through  her;  her 

87 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

calm,  quiet  ways,  her  easily  aroused  sympathy,  swiftly 
deepening  to  compassion  wherever  it  was  needed,  her 
sensible  manner  of  viewing  charitably  the  reason- 
defying  recklessness  of  most  lives,  and  the  hand  she  ever 
readily  held  out  when  help  was  required,  were  irresisti- 
ble, and  wherever  she  went  there  arose  a  chorus  of  spon- 
taneous homage  and  praise. 

Many  still  remember  the  first  "fete"  given  by  the 
young  couple  at  their  Palace  of  Potsdam,  and  where 
not  only  the  Court  but  all  the  proud  German  aristoc- 
racy appeared. 

An  accomplished  hostess,  who  had  rapidly  acquired 
a  meticulous  knowledge  of  all  the  observances  pre- 
scribed by  rigid  "etiquette"  the  young  Princess  moved 
among  her  guests,  clad  in  some  light,  shimmering  fabric, 
which  billowed  as  she  walked,  like  deliciously  tinted 
clouds,  her  eyes  shining  with  that  love -light  which 
frankly  said  to  all  who  might  care  to  know: 

"I  love  as  much  as  it  is  humanly  possible  to  love;  I 
am  proud  of  my  lover;  I  love  him  with  tenderness  and 
with  worship,  with  truthfulness  and  with  wonder,  with 
all  I  have  and  with  all  I  am!" 

It  is  astonishing,  too,  how  very  becoming  legitimate 
love  is — perchance  because  it  is  so  rare — how  it  brings 
out  the  grace  and  the  purity  and  the  very  best  of  a 
woman's  refreshingly  unspoiled  soul! 

Certain  it  was  that  the  young  Princess  was  created  to 
tread  in  the  paths  of  peace  where'er  she  went.  Her 
gentle  and  sober  gestures,  her  calm,  soft  speech  said  as 
much ;  nor  was  she  a  worrying  woman,  but  one  endowed 
with  a  strong,  cheery  heart,  which  could,  if  necessary, 
brave  wind,  weather,  or  mishap  with  unchangeable  phi- 
losophy; for  circumstances  alter  us  less  than  we  think, 
and  if  we  are  of  a  bright,  hopeful  temperament,  bright 
and  hopeful  we  shall  be  through  all.  If  misanthropic 

88 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

and  sullen,  no  happiness,  be  it  ever  so  great,  no  pros- 
perity, be  it  ever  so  glorious,  can  drive  these  congenital 
defects  away. 

This  first  "fete"  given  by  the  newly  married  pair 
classed  the  Princess  at  once  as  a  hostess  ' '  di  primo  car- 
tello."  The  supper  which  followed  it  was  irreproachable, 
and  served  with  an  elegance  and  refinement  to  which 
Berlinese  were  not  then  accustomed,  and,  watching  her, 
one  might  have  believed  that  she  had  made  an  especial 
study  of  how  to  live  and  how  to  please,  whereas  she 
simply  was  at  heart  an  artist,  and,  moreover,  had  been 
at  a  good  school  since  her  marriage,  for  the  taste  of 
Prince  William  was  extremely  fastidious,  and  even  at 
that  early  period  of  his  life  he  was  already  past-master 
of  "  I'art  de  bien  recevoir." 

No  less  did  he  understand,  however,  that  of  living 
quietly  like  any  ordinary  citizen,  enjoying  to  the  utmost 
the  pleasures  of  a  harmonious  home. 

Every  morning,  soon  after  sunrise,  the  Royal  lovers 
walked  briskly  in  the  Potsdam  park,  after  a  "tete-a- 
tete"  breakfast  in  a  cosey  room  overlooking  the  gardens. 
They  found  an  ever-renewed  pleasure  in  the  beauty  of 
the  summer  weather,  in  the  wreaths  of  "eglantine" 
embowering  the  hedges,  and  in  the  clean,  vigorous  ten- 
drils of  the  wild  convolvulus  starred  with  the  delicate 
pearl  and  pale  pink  of  its  almond-scented  blossoms. 

Something  in  that  young  unfolding  of  open-air  love- 
liness filled  their  hearts  with  exquisite  pleasure,  for  how 
like  all  this  was  to  the  unfolding  of  the  great  tenderness 
which  had  brought  them  together.  Like  true  "  cam- 
pagnards"  they  gazed  at  the  hay  standing  high  in  the 
distant  fields,  at  the  deep  emerald-hued  pastures  where 
sleek  cattle  grazed  peacefully,  and  they  drank  in  with 
lips  parted  by  smiles  the  luxuriant  breezes  laden  with 
the  wholesome  perfume  of  the  "renouveau." 

89 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

Extraordinarily  pleasant  did  the  present  and  the  fut- 
ure seem  to  them  when  thus  alone ;  yet  there  was  neither 
vainglory  nor  selfishness  in  their  delight,  for  they  val- 
ued what  was  to  be  theirs  by  right,  not  for  its  gran- 
deur, but  for  the  joy  and  great  possibilities  which  it 
added  to  their  fate. 

In  the  afternoon,  when  the  Prince  returned  from  the 
parade-ground,  where  he  had  tirelessly  and  industrious- 
ly exercised  his  men,  he  was  in  the  habit  of  taking  his 
"Dornroschen"  for  a  drive  along  the  flowery  country 
lanes,  skirting  big  ponds  and  tiny  lakelets  dotted  with 
swans  and  water-lilies,  which  repeated  themselves  on 
the  clear  surface  as  upon  a  mirror;  and  like  children  they 
laughed  together  at  the  frightened  scurrying  from  their 
approach  of  moor-hen  and  water-fowl  into  the  reed  and 
forget-me-not  grown  river-edge. 

After  the  evening  meal,  of  which  they  partook  early, 
while  still  the  elongated  sun-rays  streamed  in  through 
the  western  windows  of  the  palace  and  made  the 
crystal  and  silver  table  appointments  sparkle  and  scin- 
tillate again,  they  would  stroll  out  arm  in  arm  to  watch 
the  pink  fleeces  of  cloud  follow  the  gold  and  crimson 
of  the  sunset  to  the  horizon  line,  their  eyes  fixed  upon 
the  paling  blue  of  the  sky,  their  happy  young  faces 
fanned  by  the  caress  of  the  evening  wind  as  the  great, 
round  silver  disk  of  the  moon  solemnly  arose  behind  the 
distant  dark  masses  of  verdure  beyond  the  park. 

Often  they  lingered  and  lingered  until  it  grew  to  be 
deep  dusk  beneath  the  trees  and  the  bright  green  of 
the  lawns  faded  to  soft,  fleecy  gray,  the  smoke  of  his 
cigarette  mixing  with  the  penetrating  odors  of  reseda 
and  heliotrope  which  greeted  the  coming  night,  com- 
pletely satisfied  with  each  other  and  seeking  no  other 
pleasures  than  the  simple  joy  of  this  peaceful  solitude. 

Another  spring  found  them  just  as  happy  and  light- 

90 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

hearted  when  alone,  and  with  one  blessing  greater  than 
all  the  others  filling  the  immediate  future  with  a  sort 
of  awed  sense  of  joyful  anticipation. 

Again  the  Palace  of  Potsdam  became  bowered  in 
tender  green  and  surrounded  by  the  indescribable  scent 
of  the  rejuvenated  season,  again  a  thousand  liquid  gems 
sparkled  on  the  flowers  and  the  velvety  turf,  while  at 
sunrise  the  birds  trilled  among  the  lilacs  and  labur- 
nums, hushing  into  silence  the  amorous  solo  of  the  night- 
ingale which  had  lasted  throughout  the  short  dark  hours. 
On  the  6th  of  May,  1882,  while  the  lightest  of  breezes 
ruffled  the  waters  of  the  Havel,  scarcely  shattering  the 
mirrored  shadows  of  the  trees  leaning  over  it,  the  Prin- 
cess's arms  closed  upon  the  cause  of  all  this  expectancy, 
hope,  and  happiness. 

Her  pride  and  gratitude  were  strung  to  their  highest 
pitch  as  she  gazed  from  her  beautiful  boy  to  the  radiant 
face  of  his  young  father,  who,  with  sunshine  in  his  heart 
and  tears  of  pure  delight  in  his  eyes,  bent  tenderly  over 
her,  looking  as  if  he  had  drunk  of  some  splendor  and 
was  visibly  giving  it  out. 

Half  an  hour  before,  the  whole  world  had  seemed  to 
Prince  William  blackened  by  fears  reared  to  such  a 
height  that  they  had  blotted  the  very  sun  from  the  sky, 
but  now  life  for  him  had  recaptured  all  its  former  brill- 
iancy, with  inexpressibly  much  added  unto  it  by  the 
event  of  that  glorious  day. 

There  was  a  new  lightness  and  joy  about  his  heart 
which  had  not  been  there  before,  and  when  he  called  out 
from  a  window  to  his  grandfather,  waiting  tremulously 
on  the  terrace  below,  the  now  historical  words,  "Papa, 
ein  Junge!"  (Papa,  a  boy!)  the  jubilance  of  his  own 
voice  must  have  startled  him. 

This  new-found  bliss  simmered  in  his  mind  as  he  went 
through  his  routine  military  duties  on  those  unforgetta- 
7  91 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

ble  May  days  which  followed,  every  now  and  then  a  little 
bubble  of  exuberance  breaking  on  the  surface  in  a  smile 
of  beaming  pride  which  by  no  means  surprised  his  men. 

He  was  just  then  in  a  mood,  so  he  himself  remarked, 
to  gallop  about  the  country,  taking  every  ditch  and 
fence  as  he  went,  and  it  was  clear  that  for  once  in  a  way 
he  was  almost  thrown  off  his  balance.  He  could  neither 
sit,  nor  stand,  nor  lie  quiet,  but  every  moment  went 
off  on  aimless  excursions  to  the  young  mother's  room  or 
the  spick-and-span  brand-new  nursery  where  his  son 
and  heir  reigned  supreme;  and  when  enjoined  by  the 
dragooning  nurses  to  walk  very  softly  for  fear  of  awak- 
ening His  Majesty  the  Babe,  he  returned  with  the  same 
haste  to  his  own  quarters,  from  whence  he  would  pres- 
ently emerge  on  some  new  errand  quite  as  deliciously 
fussy  and  aimless  as  the  others  had  been. 

He  felt,  too,  a  continual  uneasiness — at  the  back  of  his 
mind — for  the  safety  of  his  two  darlings ;  but,  as  it  all 
came  out,  he  might  have  spared  himself  the  pains,  for 
nobody  could  have  been  healthier  and  stronger  and 
brighter  than  they,  and  never  did  a  baby  a  few  days 
old  afford  his  youthful  father  such  cause  for  perfect  sat- 
isfaction. His  discoveries  about  the  little  one  were 
every  hour  more  remarkable,  really  quite  epoch-mak- 
ing, and  everybody  else  was  forced  to  become  resigned 
— that  is,  all  excepting  baby's  mamma — to  count  as 
nothing  just  then  with  as  good  a  grace  as  possible. 

Halcyon  days  those  for  Princess  William,  whose  hopes 
and  exceeding  reward  they  embodied.  She  talked  but 
little,  as  was  her  wont  when  she  felt  anything  very  deep- 
ly, but  just  went  on  doing  simple  little  unselfish  things 
in  her  usual  way,  sympathizing  with  her  husband's  ex- 
travagantly high  spirits  and  listening  to  his  irrepressible 
laugh  over  the  most  indifferent  trivialities,  as  to  the 
sweetest  music  and  also  a  compliment  to  herself. 

92 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

Soon  she  was  quite  well  again  and  able  to  accompany 
her  little  son  in  his  airings  beneath  the  delicate  green 
foliage  of  the  trees,  walking  up  and  down  the  grassy 
alleys  diapered  by  the  clean,  golden  sunshine  where  it 
filtered  through  the  branches;  pulling  long  pieces  of 
feathery  grasses  from  their  sheaths  to  gently  tickle  now 
and  again  one  of  the  tiny  fists — like  crumpled  rose-leaves 
— resting  on  the  snowy  mantle,  or  the  satiny  fat  little 
neck  just  beneath  the  lace  hood  of  His  Imperial  and 
Royal  Highness  Prince  Frederick- Wilhelm-Victor-Au- 
guste-Ernest  of  Hohenzollern,  her  much-beloved  first- 
born. 


CHAPTER  V 

WHEN  Princess  Augusta-Victoria  of  Schleswig-Hol- 
stein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg  married  Prince  William 
of  Prussia,  she  was  proclaimed  by  the  Court  and  by  the 
great  world  at  Berlin  to  be  the  most  fortunate  of  girls, 
since,  although  virtually  dowerless  and  the  daughter 
of  a  House  no  longer  regnant,  she  had  secured  the  finest 
"parti"  in  Europe. 

From  the  very  first  this  extravagant  "luck"  was 
dinned  into  her  ears  with  what  may  be  described  as 
exaggerated  persistency  and  superfluous  emphasis;  con- 
descension and  a  lofty  sort  of  patronage  being  among 
the  mildest  means  employed  to  keep  perpetually  before 
her  eyes  the  fact  that  she  had  been  blessed  far  beyond 
her  deserts. 

Indeed,  one  of  the  reasons  why  the  young  couple 
kept  as  much  as  they  could  to  themselves  and  avoided, 
whenever  it  was  possible,  appearing  at  Court,  was  be- 
cause hot-headed,  warm-hearted  Prince  William  —  then 
little  more  than  a  boy — was  keenly  alive  to  the  unfriend- 
ly manner  in  which  his  wife's  every  act  and  utterance 
was  criticised,  and  because  he  found  it  almost  beyond 
his  power  to  refrain  from  giving  rein  to  the  cruel  resent- 
ment excited  in  his  heart,  by  the  glaring  disposition  dis- 
played there  to  cavil  at  her  demeanor,  her  dress,  nay 
even  at  her  most  charming  qualities. 

To  be  sure,  the  kindly  old  Emperor  and  his  aged  Con- 
sort, Empress  Augusta,  never  departed  from  the  affec- 
tionate consideration  which  they  made  a  point  of  evinc- 

94 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

ing  on  every  occasion  towards  their  granddaughter-in- 
law,  but  they  had  no  opportunity  to  take  up  the  cudgels 
in  her  behalf,  since  even  the  most  virulent  of  her  detract- 
ors studiously  avoided  saying  or  doing  anything  which 
might  attract  the  attention  and  arouse  the  indignation 
of  Their  Majesties,  and  thus  furnish  a  pretext  to  the 
Prince  for  invoking  the  intervention  of  his  Imperial 
grandparents. 

Thoroughly  conscious,  however,  of  the  depreciatory 
atmosphere  which  prevailed  at  Court,  especially  in  quar- 
ters where  the  Princess  should  have  found  sympathy 
and  support,  the  young  people,  too  proud  to  complain, 
met  this  difficult  situation  with  dignified  silence  and 
ever-increasing  reserve;  and  though  Prince  Bismarck, 
for  political  purposes  of  his  own,  attempted  to  envenom 
matters  still  further,  and  urged  Their  Royal  Highnesses 
to  publicly  resent  these  affronts,  his  advice  remained 
unheeded. 

Indeed,  the  Princess  saw  at  once  that  the  great  Chan- 
cellor wished  to  use  her  as  a  weapon  in  his  manoeuvres 
against  his  own  foes,  and  to  inveigle  her  into  a  conflict 
of  many  years'  standing  which  was  a  secret  to  nobody. 
She  therefore  wisely  determined  to  keep  aloof  from  his 
schemes,  declined  to  comply  with  his  desires,  and  bore 
the  brunt  of  his  extreme  displeasure  and  sarcastic  vitu- 
perations with  a  quiet  courage  and  a  patience  seldom  to 
be  met  with  in  the  weaker  sex,  rather  than  augment  by 
one  iota  the  many  worries  by  which  her  beloved  hus- 
band was  beset. 

For  Prince  Bismarck  the  marriage  of  the  Heir  Pre- 
sumptive had  had  two  purposes:  one  was  to  reconcile 
the  Schleswig-Holsteiners  to  their  country's  incorpora- 
tion with  the  Kingdom  of  Prussia,  and  the  other  to 
make  of  the  young  bride — whom  he  fondly  imagined  to 
be  very  pliable,  shy,  and  easily  managed — a  scourge 

95 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

wherewith  to  whip  his  personal  enemies.  In  this  last 
project,  as  I  have  just  said,  he  did  not  succeed,  and 
nothing  could  equal  his  stupefaction  and  dismay  when 
he  found  that  this  young  and  unsophisticated  girl, 
brought  up  in  the  simplest  fashion  and  quite  out  of 
the  world,  whose  acquaintance  with  Court  etiquette, 
forms,  and  ceremonies  was  at  first  of  the  scantiest,  not 
only  faced  him  with  unfaltering  bravery,  but  gave  him 
to  understand,  beyond  the  possibility  of  a  doubt,  that 
she  would  not  lend  her  hand  to  his  machinations,  no 
matter  what  humiliations  and  vexations  she  might  be 
called  upon  to  endure. 

I  heard  him  myself  declare,  shortly  after  one  of  his 
encounters  with  her,  that  for  a  woman  to  have  brains 
was  a  serious  blemish,  and  that  he  wished  from  his  heart 
he  could  forbid  them  all  the  use  of  such  dangerous 
explosives. 

''Women  should  do  as  they  are  told,"  he  continued. 
"Politics  should  be  as  uninteresting  and  unattractive 
to  them  as  the  commotions  which  take  place  at  the  bot- 
tom of  the  sea;  they  should  not  even  know  the  names 
of  the  rival  parties  in  the  Reichstag,  but  confine  their 
attention  to  their  kitchens  and  still-rooms,  and  to  the 
rearing  of  their  children,  until  they  are  bidden  to  use 
their  accursed  'feminine  influence'  in  some  good  cause, 
and  then  only  when  told  how  to  go  about  it." 

This  tirade  ended  in  a  storm  of  denunciation,  which  I 
do  not  propose  to  transcribe  here,  and  I  remember  that 
at  the  time  I  sincerely  pitied  the  woman,  whatever  her 
rank,  who  was  forced  to  listen  often  to  such  an  enuncia- 
tion of  principles. 

Still,  the  Chancellor  had  certainly  a  long  score  of 
grudges  against  the  Princesses  of  the  House  of  Hohen- 
zollern,  and  it  is  scarcely  to  be  wondered  at  that  his 
Machiavellian  mind  should  have  evolved  the  plan  above 

96 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

mentioned,  or  that  his  favorite  motto — ''Petticoats  only 
conduce  to  the  ruin  of  statecraft" — should  at  that  period 
have  seemed  to  him  singularly  apposite. 

His  greatest  dread  was  that  Princess  William  should 
ally  herself  with  the  Empress,  who  was  one  of  the  prin- 
cipal opponents  of  his  policy,  and  he  at  once  took  ef- 
fectual means  to  keep  the  two  Royal  ladies  as  far  apart 
as  possible. 

Empress  Augusta  was  and  will  remain  one  of  the  most 
pathetic  and  interesting  figures  of  modern  history,  and 
the  masterful  Chancellor  did  much  to  embitter  the  last 
five-and-twenty  years  of  her  life  by  his  savage  sarcasms, 
and  the  uncompromising  animosity  that  he  displayed 
towards  her. 

"  May  she  be  happy  in  the  great,  restless  world  which 
she  is  about  to  enter!"  was  Goethe's  prayer  when  he 
took  leave  of  her,  his  favorite  pupil,  on  the  eve  of  her 
departure  from  Saxe -Weimar  for  Berlin  as  a  bride. 

Alas!  the  wish  was  not  fulfilled!  The  Court  of  Fred- 
erick William  III.  was  not  the  place  whither  to  journey 
in  search  of  gayety  or  happiness,  and  the  fair  young 
Princess  was  ill  at  ease  there  always. 

With  advancing  years  her  health  broke  down  so  com- 
pletely that  when  her  husband  ascended  the  throne,  in 
1 86 1,  she  was  a  confirmed  invalid,  suffering  at  times  tort- 
ures from  an  internal  malady,  which  she  bore  with  ex- 
emplary courage.  Her  devotion  to  good  works,  her 
boundless  charity,  her  tenderness  of  heart,  were  infinite, 
and  even  after  age  and  illness  had  made  havoc  of  her 
beauty,  her  winning  smile,  and  the  intense  look  of  her 
magnificently  sparkling  eyes  captivated  all  those  who 
came  in  contact  with  her. 

Suffering  seemed  to  have  brought  out  nothing  but 
good  in  her,  and  when  she  became  Queen  of  Prussia 
she  never  wearied  of  ameliorating  the  lot  of  her  Con- 

97 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

sort's  subjects.  She  worked  harder  than  any  Florence 
Nightingale  for  the  success  of  the  Geneva  Convention 
and  the  establishment  of  the  Red  Cross  Society,  and  in 
the  wars  of  the  sixties,  as  well  as  in  that  of  1870-71, 
she  personally  organized  hospitals  for  the  wounded, 
whom  she  daily  visited,  and  upon  whom  she  lavished 
all  the  comforts  and  even  luxuries  which  a  long  purse 
can  afford. 

Her  sympathies  for  France  were  imputed  to  her  in 
certain  quarters  as  a  crime,  and  yet  they  were  but  the 
outcome  of  a  generous-hearted  pity  towards  a  fallen 
foe.  She  it  was  who  besought  the  King  to  delay  the 
bombardment  of  Paris,  and  this  solicitude  for  the 
wretched  women  and  children,  the  sick  and  wounded 
starving  within  its  walls,  Bismarck  never  forgave  her, 
accusing  her  openly  of  placing  obstacles  in  his  way,  and 
of  endeavoring  to  weaken  his  influence  with  the  Mon- 
arch to  whom  he  was  devoted  body  and  soul. 

This  cultured,  sensitive,  and  much  -  misunderstood 
Queen  would  have  been  the  best  of  guides,  philosophers, 
and  friends  for  her  grandson's  bride,  but  that  the  wily 
Chancellor  would  not  allow!  He  succeeded  in  a  measure 
to  keep  them  apart,  and  during  the  first  few  years  of 
her  married  life  Augusta- Victoria  was  exceedingly  lonely. 

Her  only  friend  in  Berlin,  practically  speaking,  was 
then  the  American  -  born  Countess  Waldersee,  whose 
first  husband,  Prince  Frederick  of  Schleswig-Holstein 
(he  had  abandoned  his  royal  rank  and  dignities  for  the 
Austrian  nobiliary  title  of  Fuerst  Noer  in  order  to  be 
able  to  marry  her)  had  been  Princess  William's  uncle. 

There  has  been  a  good  deal  of  nonsense  written  about 
Countess  Waldersee  having  been  the  " Egeria"  of  Will- 
iam II.  at  the  beginning  of  his  reign,  but  it  is  those 
only  who  know  nothing  of  Germany's  present  Ruler 
who  are  inclined  to  believe  such  idle  gossip.  For  he  is 

98 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

emphatically  not  a  man  to  be  led  or  swayed  by  any  one ; 
least  of  all  has  he  ever  permitted  any  woman,  old  or 
young,  beautiful  or  the  reverse,  to  influence  his  political 
conduct  or  the  action  of  his  government. 

True,  Countess  Waldersee  is  a  woman  of  quite  re- 
markable cleverness,  and  was  in  her  youth  extremely 
good-looking;  moreover,  neither  Emperor  William  nor 
Empress  Augusta  -  Victoria  has  ever  forgotten  the  af- 
fection and  motherly  tenderness  which  she  displayed 
towards  her  sometimes  so  forlorn  young  kinswoman, 
during  those  first  years  at  Potsdam,  and  they  treat  her 
as  a  much-valued  relative.  But  her  alleged  boundless 
influence  over  the  Heir  Presumptive,  and  subsequently 
over  the  Emperor,  never  existed  except  in  endless  and 
very  theatrical  press  reports,  dubbing  her  "the  elderly 
' Egeria'  of  a  hot-headed  and  immature  ' Numa  Pom- 
pilius:" 

Any  person  who  knew  Prince  William  in  those  days 
will  be  ready  to  confess  that  even  then  the  whole  char- 
acter of  his  face  showed  him  to  be  anything  but  a  pliable 
or  weak  man.  The  squareness  of  his  under  jaw,  the  firm- 
ness of  his  lips,  the  dark-blue  gleam  of  his  penetrating 
eyes,  and  especially  the  impressive  sternness  of  his  whole 
expression,  when  not  smiling,  all  spoke  of  invincible 
determination,  pride,  dignity,  and  absolute  self-posses- 
sion— nay,  his  voice  alone,  " schnerdig"  abrupt  and  ex- 
traordinarily energetic,  convinced  even  the  most  dull 
that  this  was  a  Prince  destined  to  leave  his  impress 
upon  the  history  of  the  world. 

Matters  became  still  more  unpleasant  for  the  Prince 
and  Princess  soon  after  the  birth  of  their  first  baby,  and 
the  forbidding  clouds,  which  had  until  then  emitted  but 
low  rumblings  of  thunder  and  of  storm,  gathered  with 
increased  menace  in  their  sky,  and  so  sombrely  at  times 
as  to  almost  obscure  it  altogether. 

99 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

The  christening  feast  itself  was  not  characterized  by 
much  geniality,  in  spite  of  the  efforts  made  by  Crown 
Prince  Rudolph  of  Austria  and  Grand  Duke  Sergius  of 
Russia  to  lighten  the  visibly  unsocial  spirits  of  most 
of  those  present.  Emperor  William  the  Great  alone 
beamed  with  joy  as  he  held  the  beautiful  baby  in  his 
old  arms  before  the  font,  and  was  in  such  high  spirits 
that  he  certainly  did  not  so  much  as  notice  the  dreary 
attitude  of  those  surrounding  him. 

There  was,  still  then,  the  suggestion  of  the  wild-rose 
in  the  face  of  Princess  William,  with  its  delicate,  fleeting 
shades  of  pink  and  white,  but  the  slim  strength  and 
dignity  of  her  limbs  and  carriage,  the  graver  expression 
of  her  eyes,  already  betrayed  the  fact  that  she  was  now 
burdened  with  heavy  cares  and  was  prepared  to  bear 
them  squarely  and  uncomplainingly. 

She  manifestly  avoided  the  common  error  of  expect- 
ing too  much  from  the  world.  For  the  present,  she 
seemed  content  with  avoiding  complications  and  cen- 
sure, and  she  said  but  little,  her  attitude  being  one  of 
kindly  and  courteous  reserve. 

At  any  rate,  those  who  were  not  her  friends  soon  per- 
ceived that  there  was  more  in  her  than  they  expected 
to  find — which  was  a  distinctly  unpleasant  surprise. 
The  perfect  simplicity  and  gentleness  of  her  whole  at- 
titude seemed  to  say,  much  more  plainly  than  words 
could  have  done :  "  I  am  of  no  importance ;  do  not  mis- 
understand my  position.  It  is  not  my  business  to  pre- 
vent events  or  to  make  history;  so,  you  see,  you  need 
not  be  so  bitterly  incensed!" 

Ah,  yes,  but  there  were  many  who,  nevertheless, 
weighed  her  importance  with  extreme  nicety  and  watch- 
ed her  with  alarmed  attention,  for  it  was  plain  that  she 
was  the  spouse  "par  excellence"  for  her  impulsive,  en- 
thusiastic husband,  a  steady  helper  in  need ;  and  though 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

she  strictly  confined  herself  to  Prince  Bismarck's  virt- 
uous programme,  and  was,  above  all  things,  a  perfect 
wife  and  mother,  yet  her  personality  was  beginning  to 
loom  inconveniently,  even  upon  that  distinguished  states- 
man's horizon,  as  one  whose  sensible  and  single-minded 
advice  was  more  likely  to  commend  itself  than  his  own 
to  Germany's  future  Emperor. 

She  was  just  as  sweet-tempered  and  gracious  as  of 
yore,  and  quite  as  patient.  She  never  made  an  ill- 
natured  remark  or  did  an  ill-natured  thing,  but  her  love 
for  her  brilliant  husband  had  become  tenfold  greater; 
his  will  was  now  hers ;  her  only  wish  was  to  ably  second 
him  in  anything  he  undertook,  to  please  and  satisfy 
him  in  every  respect,  to  bend  all  her  energies  to  his  ser- 
vice, and  it  was  plain  that  should  any  one  ever  venture 
to  attack  him,  stealthily  or  otherwise,  she  had  it  in  her 
to  defend  him  with  unflinching  courage  and  resolution. 
Truly,  quiet  as  she  was,  she  had  a  character  of  her  own, 
and  plenty  of  poise  and  discernment,  and  to  be  so  guarded 
at  her  age  and  in  her  position  showed  a  fund  of  reso- 
lution sufficient  to  give  much  food  for  reflection  to  the 
great  Chancellor. 

"Her  head  will  be  so  much  turned  as  to  ruin  any 
sense  there  may  be  in  it,"  had  been  one  of  the  chari- 
table verdicts  pronounced  at  the  time  of  her  marriage 
at  the  Court  of  Berlin.  Yet  no  such  thing  had  taken 
place  or  was  likely  to  do  so. 

She  continued  to  abstain  from  all  thoughts  of  self. 
Her  husband  never  saw  her  sweet  face  without  its 
cheering  smile,  come  when  he  would;  he  never  heard  a 
complaint,  or  even  a  peevish  word  or  an  exacting  de- 
mand upon  his  overburdened  time. 

Her  power  was  too  womanly — in  the  highest  accepta- 
tion of  the  word — to  be  ever  obtrusive,  for  she  was  con- 
tent to  play  no  role  at  all,  but  to  go  about  softening, 

101 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

healing,  guarding,  stirring  up  the  better  feelings  of 
everybody  with  whom  she  came  in  contact,  while  her 
rectitude  and  fairness  of  judgment  proved  on  more 
than  one  occasion  an  infinite  blessing  to  the  man  she  so 
passionately  loves. 

Emperor  William  has  often  complained  that  he  is  the 
most  misunderstood  Monarch  in  Europe — which  is  per- 
fectly true;  and  it  may  be  added  with  equal  veracity 
that  his  Consort  shares  this  misrepresentation,  as  she 
has  shared  all  his  joys  and  all  his  sorrows  during  the 
past  twenty-five  years,  for  it  is  the  fashion,  even  in 
Germany,  to  speak  of  her  as  a  model  wife  and  mother 
of  the  prosaic  "Hausfrau"  type,  and  nothing  more; 
whereas,  in  spite  of  her  own  modest  ways,  all  kindness 
and  goodness,  there  is  much  in  her  that  no  one  ever 
suspects  excepting  her  immediate  "  entourage,"  much 
that  raises  her  high  above  even  so  lofty  a  standard, 
and  makes  her  indeed  the  ideal  of  a  great  Ruler's  life- 
companion. 

What  her  husband  thinks  of  her  may  be  gathered 
from  his  constant  reference  to  "meine  Frau" — words 
to  which  he  gives  an  expression  which  eloquently  trans- 
lates the  fact  that  she  is  above  all  the  rest  of  the  world 
in  his  eyes,  and  that  he,  at  any  rate,  has  never  for  a  sin- 
gle instant  been  blind  to  her  true  value. 

The  young  couple  continued  to  live  at  Potsdam, 
moving  in  the  autumn  from  the  "  M  armor  palast"  to 
the  "  Stadtschloss ,"  and  in  the  spring  from  the  "Stadt- 
schloss"  to  the  ' ' M  armor  palast, "  with  clock-work  regu- 
larity, but  they  always  preferred  the  "  M  armor  palast," 
for  these  two  loved  nature,  and  to  them  the  fresh  air, 
blue  sky,  and  green  trees  were  charms  sufficient  in 
themselves  to  enchant. 

The  flowers,  too!  What  a  joy  they  were  to  the  Prin- 
cess, when  in  April  and  May  the  lanes  and  woods 

102 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

around  Potsdam  became  blue  with  wild  violets  and  pink 
with  hawthorn.  Lightly  she  would  dive  between  the 
stems  of  the  hazel  and  alder  bushes  in  search  of  hare- 
bells, Solomon's -seal,  buttercups,  streaked  sorrel,  or 
delicate  wreaths  of  clematis. 

These  spring  blossoms  were  suitable  companions  for 
her,  reminding  her,  as  they  did,  of  her  dear  old  forest- 
girthed  home,  and  they  afforded  her  many  hours  of  con- 
tentment when  the  Prince  —  still  always  to  her  "le 
Prince  Charmant" — was  detained  longer  than  usual  by 
his  military  duties. 

All  the  annoyances  and  vexations  to  which  she  was 
subjected  invariably  fled  at  his  approach,  and  she  be- 
came once  more  full  of  spirit  and  merriment,  gladsome 
and  blithe  as  a  child  as  soon  as  his  hand  touched  hers. 

He  had  changed  a  good  deal,  both  mentally  and  physi- 
cally, since  his  marriage;  he  looked  older  than  his  age 
now,  and  his  deportment,  striking  countenance,  and 
half-repelling,  half -inviting  manner  were  more  effective 
with  strangers  than  his  former  absolute  reticence,  for 
there  was  something  irresistible  in  the  privilege  of  at- 
tracting the  attention  of  one  whose  demeanor  was  in 
general  distant. 

When  he  once  began  to  talk — eager,  decided,  original, 
brilliant — he  fairly  fascinated  his  auditors;  and  when  he 
kept  silent  everybody  watched  ardently  for  a  renewal 
of  favor. 

General  homage  was,  however,  no  pleasure  to  him;  he 
accepted  it  as  the  due  of  a  Hohenzollern,  and  would 
naturally  have  missed  it  had  it  not  been  laid  at  his 
feet,  but  he  never  stretched  so  much  as  a  finger  to  beck- 
on it  to  him  or  to  render  it  more  personal. 

In  1883,  1884,  and  1887  the  little  Princes  Eitel-Fred- 
erick,  Adalbert,  and  August  were  added  to  the  Pots- 
dam nurseries,  and  to  the  expression  on  the  young 

103 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

mother's  face  a  pensive  gentleness,  almost  mournful  at 
times,  a  slightly  care-worn  look  around  the  eyes  and 
mouth,  even  while  she  smiled;  for  many  anxieties  beset 
her  with  regard  to  the  disappointments  and  numerous 
trials  her  husband  had  to  bear. 

Her  first-born  was  a  constant  joy  and  solace  to  her. 
He  was  a  remarkably  bright  child,  his  delicate  features, 
pure,  fair  skin,  and  soft,  dark -blue  eyes — like  his  father's 
— sparkling  with  intelligence,  made  up  a  "tout  ensemble" 
of  which  any  mother  might  well  be  proud,  and  the  two 
were  almost  inseparable  during  those  first  six  years. 

Prince  William  had  on  several  occasions  been  forced 
to  undertake  official  trips  to  Russia;  for  instance,  in 
1885,  to  bear  his  Imperial  grandfather's  congratula- 
tions to  the  Czar  upon  the  coming  of  age  of  the  Heir- 
Apparent;  and  in  September,  1886,  in  order  to  be 
present  at  the  grand  military  manoeuvres  near  Brest- 
Litovsk.  Moreover,  it  was  part  of  his  duties  as  Heir- 
Presumptive  to  visit,  in  turn,  the  various  German 
Courts,  to  appear  at  the  military  manoeuvres  in  Ger- 
many, and  if  one  adds  to  this  the  hunting-parties  which 
he  superintended  in  the  aged  Emperor's  stead,  and  his 
own  absorbing  work  as  a  conscientious  and  ardent 
soldier,  it  will  readily  be  seen  why  he  was  obliged  to 
frequently  absent  himself  from  his  dear  home. 

Malevolent  gossip,  it  goes  without  saying,  hastened  to 
proclaim  that  he  was  "fatigue  de  cueillir  la  marguerite 
et  de  filer  le  parf  ait-amour"  in  his  sylvan  retreat  of  Pots- 
dam, and  assailed  with  insidious  slander  the  singularly 
blameless  married  life  of  the  man  whom  Court  and 
people  so  perversely  continued  to  wilfully  misunder- 
stand. 

There  were  many  ungenerous  references  made  to  the 
"  flightiness "  of  the  Hohenzollern  Princes  in  the  press, 
of  every  color  and  nationality,  and  these  malignant  in- 

104 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

nuendoes,  first  whispered  in  society  but  ere  long  printed 
in  cold  type,  came  to  be  widely  believed  both  at  home 
and  abroad. 

It  is  possible  that  Prince  William  might  have  remain- 
ed quite  indifferent  to  these  calumnies,  knowing  as  he 
did  how  completely  he  could  rely  upon  his  wife's  trust- 
ful love,  had  not  matters  been  carried  to  the  point  of 
coupling  with  his  the  names  of  certain  political  "  intri- 
gantes." This  naturally  irritated  him  to  the  verge  of 
exasperation;  and  when  some  of  those  nearest  to  him 
ventured  to  criticise  what  they  may  have  believed  to 
have  been  indiscretions  on  his  part,  he,  conscious  of 
his  innocence  and  of  the  injustice  of  the  charges,  gave 
expression  to  his  resentment  at  their  attempt  to  ques- 
tion or  control  his  private  life,  pointed  out  that  he 
was  no  longer  a  boy  to  be  chided,  but  a  grown  man, 
and  expressed  so  clearly  his  indignation  that  more  bad 
blood  was  created  and  the  situation  rendered  yet  more 
strained. 

Even  the  gentle  heart  of  Princess  William  was  at  last 
roused  to  extreme  anger  and  to  a  sensation  of  acute 
grief,  for  her  ardent  affections  were  fastened  upon  her 
husband  with  a  vehemence  which  her  placid  and  calm 
demeanor  never  quite  betrayed  before  others ;  and  when 
she  saw  him  thus  unjustly  criticised  and  accused  her 
suffering  was  intense,  and,  judging  that  amends  were 
due  to  him  for  this  crying  unfairness,  she  could  hardly 
do  enough  to  prove  to  him  that  he  was  indeed  the  one 
object  of  her  adoration. 

There  is  something  inexpressibly  touching  and  en- 
viable in  such  a  devotion,  in  such  a  power  to  see  no 
flaw  in  one's  idol,  and  it  is  only  very  pure  and  lofty 
beings  who  can  attain  to  this,  the  very  pinnacle  of  sub- 
lime love. 

The  Princess  had  made  but  little  progress  in  intimacy 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

with  her  husband's  family,  since  each  day  had  revealed 
more  plainly  to  her  how  much  too  unimportant  she 
was  ever  to  be  one  of  them. 

Chilling  in  condescending  courtesy,  they  remained 
gravely  and  coldly  polite,  but  no  more,  even  when  at 
their  best,  with  the  exception  of  the  Emperor  and  Em- 
press, who  were  always  kindness  itself,  and  had  become 
very  fond  of  her,  the  old  Monarch  showing  positive 
paternal  solicitude  where  she  was  concerned;  but  this 
Prince  William  could  not  persuade  his  wife  to  believe 
a  great  compliment  to  herself,  because,  according  to 
her  invariable  custom,  she  continued  to  attribute  to 
him  everything  good  that  befell  her. 

The  gravest  imputation  against  her  was  still  that 
she  was  not  "clever,"  and  did  not  possess  the  varied  ac- 
complishments which  so  greatly  enhanced  the  fame  of 
the  elder  Hohenzollern  ladies,  whose  conversation  was 
frequently  conducted  in  such  scientific  terms  that  to  the 
ordinary  mortal  it  sounded  like  an  unknown  tongue, 
and  suggested  to  most  a  lamentable  lack  of  simplicity. 

Persons  of  so  much  resource  and  of  such  abnormally 
cultivated  minds  are,  of  course,  admirable,  but  they 
sometimes  have  a  weakness  for  making  a  target  of  any 
one  not  up  to  their  mark  in  the  "ologies" — a  practice 
which  occasionally  becomes  more  mortifying  to  them- 
selves than  to  their  victims. 

Until  March,  1887,  however,  although  life  went  on 
for  Prince  and  Princess  William  monotonously,  beset 
with  continual  small  warfares  and  conflicts  that  thwart- 
ed their  best  and  most  generous  intentions,  it  was  still 
so  taken  up  with  hard  work  for  both,  each  in  his  and 
her  particular  realm  of  usefulness,  that  they  had  scarce- 
ly opportunity  to  wish  for  better  times,  or  to  wonder 
that  all  real  intimacy  with  most  other  members  of  their 
House  should  have  so  strangely  remained  in  abeyance. 

106 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

Anxious  and  sad  days  were,  nevertheless,  in  store 
for  them  all,  and  soon  events  occurred  which  in  a  few 
short  months  not  only  altered  the  fate  of  Germany, 
but  changed  the  entire  political  plane  of  Europe. 

On  March  22d,  Emperor  William  the  Great  celebrated 
his  ninetieth  birthday,  surrounded  by  his  entire  family. 
The  ceremony  was  unforgettable  in  its  simple  grandeur. 
The  palace  presented  a  very  beautiful  picture,  decorated 
throughout,  as  it  was,  with  palms,  ferns,  and  flowers, 
and  filled  with  a  joyous  crowd  of  well-wishers,  while  the 
hero  of  the  feast  was  himself  the  most  amazing  and 
wonderful  sight  to  be  encountered  there.  Healthy, 
strong,  smiling,  and  happier  in  his  extreme  old  age 
than  he  had  ever  been  in  his  youth,  above  all  things 
kind  and  chivalrous,  he  preserved  a  fresh  and  almost 
rosy  mien  quite  wonderful  to  behold. 

"You  young  people  have  no  real  stamina,"  he  was 
fond  of  saying,  with  a  cheery  laugh.  "It  is  the  fault 
of  modern  training.  In  my  time  children  were  fed  on 
bread  and  milk  and  underdone  meats,  and  were  never 
allowed  to  '  stuff '  nor  to  sleep  in  heated  rooms,  the 
result  being  that  we  were  never  ill,  nor  knew  that  we 
had  livers  or  lungs  or  digestions — or  hearts  either,  for 
the  matter  of  that,  excepting  as  a  sentimental  figure 
of  speech!" 

This  was  heard  in  somewhat  shamefaced  silence,  for 
was  not  this  extraordinary  nonagenarian  a  living  ex- 
ample of  his  theories,  he  who  had  so  evergreen  a  vital- 
ity, so  great  and  unimpaired  a  sagacity,  was  so  hale 
and  hearty,  so  unselfish,  good-natured,  and  cheerful,  and 
who,  in  one  word,  compared  so  favorably  with  the 
modern  fussy,  nervous,  dyspeptic  victims  of  eternal 
haste,  worry,  overfeeding,  and  other  "fin  de  siecle" 
evils? 

This  year  of  1887  had  begun  under  more  clement 
s  107 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

auspices  for  the  little  family  at  Potsdam.  The  four 
sturdy  boys  occupying  the  Princely  nurseries  gave  their 
parents  no  cause  for  anxiety,  and  their  nurses,  clad  in 
the  picturesque  Wendish  "  Tracht"  of  the  Spree- Wald, 
were  one  of  the  sights  of  the  little  town  nestling  on  the 
Havel  shore;  but  in  the  spring  came  without  any 
warning  one  of  those  sudden  changes  whereby  the 
destiny  of  peoples  and  of  individuals  is  made  to  rock 
like  a  storm -tossed  vessel  in  mid -ocean,  and  which 
cause  so  wide-spread  a  sensation  that  total  strangers, 
even  when  belonging  to  alien  races,  are  unstrung  there- 
by, and  that  the  remembrance  of  it  lingers  with  them 
for  years. 

The  young  couple  were  looking  hopefully  and  eager- 
ly in  the  face  of  the  future  when  a  brutal  and  horrible 
transformation  came  over  it;  the  smile  it  had  shown 
flickered  away,  and  it  abruptly  became  almost  grotesque 
in  its  grimacing  distortion,  as  if  their  sanguine  anticipa- 
tion had  outstayed  the  welcome  its  power  could  give 
them. 

What  were  then  the  enmities  which  had  sprung  up 
and  thriven  like  weeds  in  the  inner  circle  of  the  House 
of  Hohenzollern  ?  What  were  mere  differences  of  opin- 
ion or  even  the  coldness  which  had  gradually  arisen 
between  the  older  and  the  younger  members  thereof, 
in  comparison  to  the  evil  that  was  now  overtaking  them 
all  with  rapid,  ghostly  strides — this  dreadful  thing,  full 
of  hidden  tortures  and  despair,  voiceless  and  mysteri- 
ous at  first,  and  suggesting  formless  terrors  ?  Nothing ! 
For  past  sorrows  and  disappointments  were  to  be  now 
swallowed  up  in  a  gulf  of  such  stormy  blackness  that 
they  would  appear  slight  and  trivial  by  contrast. 

Mere  justice  to  William  II.  demands  that  what  really 
took  place  in  1887-88,  at  the  Court  of  Berlin,  and  what 
he  then  underwent,  should  be  stated  here,  and  for  the 

108 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

first  time  in  true  colors,  since  the  view  taken  in  America 
and  in  England  of  those  events  has  been  the  foundation 
of  so  cruel  a  misconception  of  his  character. 

I  have  already  given  some  idea  how  bitterly  Prince 
William  resented,  not  only  the  lack  of  sympathy  which 
had  been  his  portion,  but  the  treatment  to  which  his 
dear  wife  had  been  subjected.  Not  only  was  it  painfully 
evident  to  him  at  every  turn  that  she  would  never  be 
granted  the  position  to  which  her  rank  and  status,  as 
well  as  her  personal  sweetness  and  ceaseless  endeavors 
to  please,  gave  her  so  full  a  title,  but  the  unreasonable 
dislike  of  which  she  was  the  victim  increased  with  the 
passage  of  time,  instead  of  diminishing,  so  that  when  he 
thought  of  this  requital  of  her  noble,  self-sacrificing  de- 
votion to  himself  and  to  all  those  who  belonged  to  him 
he  trembled  with  suppressed  rage. 

Indeed,  continual  fault-finding,  often,  it  is  true,  ex- 
pressed merely  by  looks  and  contemptuous  and  pitying 
attitudes,  had  done  its  grievous  work,  and  had  fanned 
into  flame  the  feelings  of  resentment  with  which  the 
Prince's  soul  teemed.  Something  within  him  had  be- 
come detached,  aloof,  and  this  something  had  more  and 
more  seemed  to  be  barring  the  path  leading  from  his 
own  home  to  that  of  his  childhood,  closing  the  way  to 
all  tender  feeling,  to  all  real  intimacy! 

During  these  years  Prince  William  had  been  beset 
with  many  difficulties  and  disappointments,  and  had 
faced  them  always  courageously;  sometimes  coldly  and 
patiently;  sometimes  desperately,  recklessly  resolving 
to  tear  to  pieces  the  veil  of  half -illusions,  so  ragged  now, 
alas!  which  still  hung  between  him  and  the  truth.  A 
sudden  impulse  often  seized  him  to  go  down  into  the 
innermost  recesses  of  his  troubles,  and  to  discover  the 
why  and  wherefore  of  all  his  misery.  His  natural  sen- 
sitiveness had  frequently  set  him  on  the  defensive,  even 

109 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

with  those  obviously  his  friends,  and,  as  he  hated  any 
sort  of  scene,  he  had  fallen  into  the  habit  of  avoiding 
even  the  mere  possibility  of  one,  by  cutting  certain 
topics  out  of  the  conversation  with  a  sort  of  angry 
vehemence  which  amazed  and  disquieted  his  hearers. 
His  way  of  pronouncing  certain  names,  the  bitterness 
of  his  accent,  led  one  to  believe  him  inspired  by  down- 
right hatred,  when,  of  a  truth,  it  was  nothing  more  than 
sheer  exasperation,  for  there  were  hours  in  his  life  then 
when  he  seemed  to  confront  the  very  void  in  which  the 
world  was  spinning. 

Such  was  the  state  of  affairs  when  he  was  brutally  in- 
formed that  his  father  was  suffering  from  cancer  of  the 
larynx,  which  meant,  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  that 
within  a  space  of  months  easily  computed  (he  himself 
would'  become  Heir  Apparent  to  the  Throne,  power,  and 
dignities  of  a  grandfather  whose  span  of  years  had  al- 
ready far  outstretched  the  limits  of  human  life ;  and  out 
of  the  darkness  there  came  to  Prince  William  cries  that 
were  as  those  of  helpless,  storm-driven  creatures  being 
hurled  towards  terrible  abysses — those  of  his  own  peo- 
ple, whose  frantic  hands  seemed  raised  towards  him  in 
wild  gestures  at  once  of  appeal  and  of  rejection. 

The  pity  of  it  all  seized  hold  upon  him;  for  when 
placed  face  to  face  with  this  appalling  tragedy  he  real- 
ized that  he  stood  between  two  beings  tottering  on  the 
edge  of  the  grave,  one  heavily  burdened  with  honors 
and  with  years,  the  other  tortured  by  one  of  mankind's 
most  frightful  ills,  both  needing  his  help,  his  assistance, 
his  energy,  his  superb  youth,  and  each  utterly  uncon- 
scious of  the  good  or  the  evil  he  could  work. 

But,  first  of  all,  he  knew  that  he  had  to  rescue  some- 
thing of  which  neither  his  father  nor  his  grandfather 
could  now  retain  full  mastery,  namely,  the  car  of  State, 
the  reins  of  which  were  falling  from  the  heart-broken 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

old  Emperor's  hands,  and  dragged  loosely  and  peril- 
ously upon  the  ground,  threatening  to  bring  about  at 
any  moment  some  catastrophe.  But  any  honest  at- 
tempt to  grasp  them  meant  not  only  further  and  yet 
more  cruel  misrepresentation,  but  also  an  open  strug- 
gle with  Bismarck,  who  would  only  make  way  for  him 
and  side  with  him  under  certain  conditions  which  it 
might  or  might  not  be  possible  to  accept. 

Bismarck  had  always  dreaded  the  moment  when  the 
Crown  Prince  would  ascend  the  Throne.  He  knew  that 
Frederick  had  in  advance  declared  himself  in  favor  of 
"constitutional  methods  without  any  reserve,"  and  con- 
stitutional methods  and  parliamentarism  were  the  pet 
aversion  of  the  Chancellor,  who  realized  that  their 
strict  application  would  render  impossible  both  his 
policy  and  his  continuance  in  office. 

He,  moreover,  greatly  distrusted  the  Crown  Prince, 
and  not  only  distrusted,  but  hated  the  Crown  Prince's 
most  confidential  advisers.  One  of  his  reasons  for  this 
was  the  close  association  of  Frederick  and  of  those  con- 
fidential advisers  with  the  ultra-Liberal  party  in  Ger- 
many, composed  of  his  (Bismarck's)  bitterest  oppo- 
nents; while  another  was  the  Crown  Prince's  intimacy 
with  the  English  Court,  the  Chancellor  declaring  that  for 
more  than  a  hundred  years  the  influence  of  the  British 
Guelph  had  been  steadily  pitted  against  that  of  the 
Prussian  Hohenzollern  throughout  Germany. 

Bismarck  made  no  secret  of  the  fact  that  he  regarded 
Frederick  as  a  sentimental  visionary,  whose  political 
ideas,  picturesque,  richly  colored,  and  romantic,  were 
what  he  described  as  "empty  Utopias" — in  one  word, 
he  gave  it  thoroughly  to  be  understood  that  he  did  not 
regard  Frederick  as  likely  to  prove  a  safe  Emperor  for 
reconstructed  Germany. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  Crown  Prince's  asso- 

iii 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

ciation  with  radicals  and  their  ideals  lent  some  color 
in  the  eyes  of  a  very  large  element  of  the  German  peo- 
ple to  Bismarck's  fears,  and  it  is  equally  certain  that  he 
communicated  his  gloomy  forebodings,  with  his  all-con- 
quering eloquence,  both  to  his  Imperial  master  and  to 
Prince  William,  drawing  them  both  little  by  little  into 
what  was  then  regarded  as  the  party  opposed  to  the 
Heir  Apparent;  with  the  result  that  a  growing,  though 
tacit,  political  estrangement  widened  every  day  the 
distance  between  the  grandfather  and  grandson  on  the 
one  side,  the  Crown  Prince  and  his  chosen  few  on  the 
other. 

When,  therefore,  Prince  Bismarck  saw  his  opportu- 
nity of  eliminating  Frederick  from  every  chance  of  suc- 
cession to  the  Crown,  he  jumped  at  it  almost  ferociously. 

The  Crown  Prince,  who  had  been  sent  to  Ems  for  a 
"bad  cold  with  bronchial  complications,"  had  returned 
in  a  state  of  complete  depression.  He  knew  that  he 
was  suffering  from  cancer,  which  meant  the  crumbling 
of  all  his  hopes,  of  all  his  desires  and  ambitions;  and 
there  were  few  things  which  his  excited  imagination 
boggled  at,  things  which  he  was  certain  would  happen 
to  him  as  a  natural  consequence  of  his  malady. 

He  was  not  only  in  the  mood  to  comprehend  all  the 
horrors  of  his  fate,  but,  being  of  an  expansive  and  im- 
pressionable temperament,  he  succumbed  to  a  fit  of 
profound  melancholia,  induced,  perchance,  almost  as 
much  by  regrets  for  his  past  years  of  inaction  and  ex- 
clusion from  governmental  labors  and  interests,  and  the 
impossibility  of  his  now  ever  putting  his  pet  schemes 
into  execution,  as,  strictly  speaking,  by  the  disease 
which  was  so  barbarously  clutching  him  by  the  throat. 

The  affection  and  tender  sympathy  with  which  his 
son  received  him  was  at  one  and  the  same  time  a  balm 
and  a  wound  to  him,  for  it  confirmed  him  in  the  idea 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

that  he  was  indeed  doomed.  Knowing  that  Prince 
William  belonged  to  a  party  distinctly  opposed  to  his 
own;  that  a  wasting  invalid  like  himself  could,  in  the 
opinion  of  no  sane  man,  be  a  proper  Ruler  for  an  armed 
and  beleaguered  nation  like  Germany ;  realizing  that  he 
could  no  longer  be  a  match  for  the  radical  agitators 
whom,  in  his  kindness  of  heart,  he  had  allowed  to  swarm 
about  him;  unwilling,  also,  to  jeopardize  the  fortunes 
of  the  Empire  and  of  the  Dynasty,  he  suddenly  declared 
to  his  old  father,  to  his  son,  and  to  Prince  Bismarck, 
that  he  now  did  not  desire  to  reign,  if  he  chanced  to 
survive  his  father,  and  was  resigned  to  renounce  his 
rights  of  succession  to  the  Throne  in  favor  of  Prince 
William. 

This  was  the  opportunity  already  mentioned,  and 
Bismarck  immediately  pounced  upon  it.  In  spite  of 
the  young  Prince's  eager  protestations,  the  Iron  Chan- 
cellor at  once  reduced  the  Crown  Prince's  declaration  to 
writing,  obtained  his  signature  thereto,  and  deposited 
the  valuable  document  in  the  private  Hohenzollern 
Archives,  where  it  still  remains. 

It  goes  without  saying  that  nothing  of  all  this  was 
made  public — indeed,  hardly  a  word  has  to  this  day  been 
printed  about  it  in  Germany,  and  the  secret  would  never 
have  been  revealed  at  all  had  it  not  been  for  the  fact 
that  in  a  moment  of  extreme  weakness  Frederick  him- 
self allowed  it  to  escape  him.  This  unfortunate  admis- 
sion was  the  true  beginning  of  one  of  the  most  palpitat- 
ing dramas  ever  enacted  around  a  Crown. 

So  far  Bismarck  had  succeeded  almost  beyond  his 
hopes,  but  when  he  set  himself,  as  he  did  now,  to  obtain 
the  sanction  and  assistance  of  Prince  William  in  all  that 
he  was  decided  to  undertake  in  order  to  attain  his  aim 
— relying,  of  course,  upon  his  masterful  will  and  the  in- 
fluence, almost  amounting  to  fascination,  which  the  as- 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

sociation  of  a  lifetime  had  made  so  strong-— he  reckoned 
for  once  entirely  without  his  host. 

The  blow  for  the  young  man  had  been  a  terrible  one. 
He  realized  with  torturing  suddenness  how  greatly  he 
had  really  loved  his  father  all  the  time  that  the  cold- 
ness and  indifference  fostered  by  others  had  reigned  be- 
tween them,  all  the  time  it  had  seemed  as  if  they  prac- 
tically ignored  each  other,  and  had  wellnigh  reached  the 
Rubicon  of  absolute  antagonism. 

And  now  it  was  all  over !  In  a  few  weeks,  a  few  months 
at  most,  death  would  have  severed,  with  its  cold,  clammy, 
relentless  fingers,  the  bonds  which  indeed  bound  father 
and  son  together  so  strongly,  leaving  no  chance  for  a 
better  understanding  between,  them,  no  possibility  of 
more  affectionate  mutual  relations. 

The  thought  was  an  agonizing  one,  which  made  the 
Prince's  stern  lips  quiver  and  his  eyes  fill.  It  was  in- 
tolerable, and  it  seemed  very  strange  to  him  that  the 
world  could  still  revolve  peacefully  when  it  bore  so  heavy 
a  burden  of  sorrows.  Yet  his  strength  soon  reasserted 
itself,  and  brought  him  back  to  calm,  rigid  determina- 
tion. His  father's  life  must  be  saved ;  he,  the  son,  would 
sweep  every  obstacle,  every  impossibility  away;  he 
would  take  command,  dare  all,  and,  come  what  may, 
would  rescue  him  from  this  terrible  evil  already  eating 
into  the  tissues  of  his  body  and  drawing  near  to  the 
innermost  citadel  of  vitality. 

But  a  circumstance  which  he  had  not  foreseen  broke 
in,  coldly  and  cruelly,  upon  his  resolve,  a  circumstance 
that  brought  upon  him  amazement,  confusion,  and  de- 
spair, cost  him  the  life  which  he  had  struggled  to  pre- 
serve, and,  as  a  superfcetation  of  evils,  laid  him  bare  to 
the  absurd  reproach  of  being  unfilial — a  reproach  pub- 
licly levelled  at  him  from  henceforth  throughout  the 
civilized  world. 

114 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

This  circumstance  was  that,  while  he  had  just  then 
no  other  aim,  no  other  desire  than  to  prolong  his  father's 
days  and  to  save  him  from  the  slow,  torturing,  but  in- 
evitable death  by  suffocation  to  which  he  was  doomed, 
unless  operated  upon  at  once — as  the  German  surgeons 
called  into  consultation  advised — there  were  other  and 
less  single-minded  interests  than  his  at  work,  fighting, 
so  to  speak,  over  the  stricken  Crown  Prince,  and  subor- 
dinating the  medical  issues  of  the  case  to  their  own  self- 
ish political  considerations. 

Thus  Bismarck  favored  the  operation  because  he  held 
that  it  would  constitute  an  admission  of  the  fact  that 
Frederick  was  really  afflicted  with  cancer,  in  which 
event  he  could  hold  him  to  his  written  renunciation  of 
the  Crown.  He  also  believed  in  the  possibility  of  its 
leaving  the  illustrious  patient  voiceless — an  infirmity 
which,  according  to  certain  clauses  of  the  Family  Stat- 
utes of  the  Reigning  House  of  Prussia,  was  sufficient 
to  debar  him  from  the  Throne;  and  even  the  remote 
chance,  at  that  moment  wellnigh  an  impossibility — 
but  then  Bismarck  was  no  surgeon — of  Frederick's  dy- 
ing under  the  knife,  received  this  provident  statesman's 
consideration. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  were  in  the  opposite  camp 
persons  who  were  convinced  that,  even  if  stricken  with 
cancer  the  Crown  Prince  was  likely  to  survive  his  father, 
and  since,  by  occupying  the  Throne,  were  it  but  for  a  few 
months,  he  would  enable  them  to  reach  the  summit 
of  their  ambitions,  they  were,  therefore,  opposed  tooth 
and  nail  to  the  operation,  on  account  of  the  above- 
mentioned  opportunities  it  might  afford  to  the  Chan- 
cellor to  keep  Frederick  from  the  Crown.  Both  parties 
were  unanimous,  however,  on  one  point,  which  was  to 
keep  the  real  state  of  the  Crown  Prince  a  profound  se- 
cret as  long  as  possible. 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

Prince  William,  however,  always  in  the  habit  of  look- 
ing truth  in  the  face — to  most  of  us  there  is  nothing 
more  hateful  than  to  follow  such  a  course — refused  ab- 
solutely to  turn  his  back  upon  it,  or  even  to  gloze  it 
over,  judging  rightly  and  justly  that  in  so  grave  and 
portentous  a  matter  personal  interests  had  no  title  to 
consideration  at  the  cost  of  a  good  man's  life. 

It  is  well  known  that  William  II.  has  an  absolute  hor- 
ror of  falsehood  and  that  he  crushes  liars  with  an  angry 
vehemence  which  nothing  else  can  arouse  in  him  (indeed, 
he  has  often  been  heard  to  say,  "I've  been  hurt  by  the 
truth  many  a  time,  but  not  so  much  as  by  its  contemp- 
tible opposite!"),  and  when  he  found  that  a  trick  was 
going  to  be  played  upon  the  credulous,  his  rage  and  in- 
dignation knew  no  bounds;  but  his  wish  to  deal  fairly 
and  squarely  with  the  situation  was  naturally  at  once 
attributed  to  the  sordid  desire  of  snatching  the  Throne 
from  the  hands  of  his  father — for  his  grandfather  could 
clearly  live  but  little  longer. 

Bismarck's  plots  and  counterplots,  his  plans  and 
counterplans,  expounded  as  was  his  wont  when  in  dead 
earnest,  by  slaying  an  adverse  opinion  with  one  word, 
or  holding  it  to  the  glaring  light  of  ridicule,  which  exposed 
its  meagre,  paltry  skeleton  with  singular  ferocity,  were 
but  an  added  exasperation  to  a  man  who,  like  Prince 
William,  was  for  the  first  time  diving  deep  into  the 
most  terrible  of  human  tragedies. 

What  fiery  gleams  of  anger,  what  clash  as  of  weapons, 
there  must  have  been  in  the  interviews  between  these 
two  powerful  personalities  who  had  ceased  to  under- 
stand one  another,  the  one  cynical — he  who  had  seen 
too  much  to  allow  himself  the  luxury  of  illusions — the 
other  in  a  most  exalted  mental  condition,  impassioned, 
full  of  heat,  courage,  and  purity  of  motive;  Bismarck 
considering  everything  in  life  strictly  in  relation  to  his 

116 


"WHAT  FIERY  GLEAMS  OF  ANGER 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

will  and  projects,  appreciating  everything  simply  as  it 
affected  them;  Prince  William,  pouring  out  his  generous 
soul  in  a  vain  effort  to  convince  his  interlocutor. 

Yes!  the  situation  was  certainly  acutely  dramatic, 
but  some  followed  it  that  were  yet  more  painfully  so; 
for  this  was  only  the  beginning  of  a  time  so  dark  that 
it  was  only  in  flashes  that  Prince  William  saw  what  was 
to  be  done,  or  clearly  distinguished  the  full  extent  of 
the  task  he  had  before  him,  and  its  extraordinary  thank- 
lessness — he  who  had  suffered  and  toiled  so  incessantly 
in  prevision  of  this  day  of  his  coming  into  power,  now 
so  cruelly  near,  though  he  had  deemed  it  so  far  distant. 

It  was  indeed  only  the  beginning  of  the  bitterest 
pages  of  his  life. 


CHAPTER  VI 

BITTER  waters  were  indeed  surrounding  Prince  Will- 
iam, and  problems  confronted  him  which  were  to  be 
faced  as  unflinchingly  as  a  good  soldier  faces  the  enemy. 

He  knew  it  to  be  his  duty,  now  that  the  old  Emperor's 
wonderfully  preserved  strength  had  given  way  beneath 
the  stress  of  his  paternal  anguish,  to  be  before  him  in 
knowledge,  so  that  if  he  appealed  to  him  in  a  Ruler's 
difficulty,  he  might  be  able  to  help  him  better  than 
with  mere  words.  But  Bismarck  was  always  at  the 
aged  Monarch's  side,  and  endorsed  the  young  Prince's 
excellent  counsel  only  when  it  happened  to  coincide  with 
his  own. 

The  Chancellor  spoke  with  the  authority  and  weight 
of  an  old  and  valued  adviser  who  had  always  followed 
up  his  dictates  with  successes,  he  presented  with  a  skill 
born  of  long  experience  the  inestimable  advantages  of 
his  projects,  and  urged  the  Emperor  along  a  line  which 
the  Prince  often  disapproved;  for  Bismarck  had  this 
much  in  common  with  the  Crown-Prince's  party,  that  the 
saving  of  a  life  seemed  of  no  moment  compared  to  that 
greater  question  of  the  rival  political  interests  involved. 

The  aspect  of  everything  had  changed.  Hitherto, 
the  Prussian  Royal  House  had  been  held  up  as  a  model 
of  patriarchal  bliss  and  perfection;  it  had  been  like  a 
sturdy  tree  growing  vigorously  and  happily,  pushing  its 
way  to  the  air  and  the  sun  with  an  almost  violent  dis- 
regard of  its  neighbors,  sufficient  unto  itself  in  every 
respect. 

118 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

During  the  last  few  weeks  a  wild  wind  had  been  blow- 
ing upon  it  from  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death,  had 
shaken  all  joy  from  it,  and  left  it  denuded  of  all  beauty 
in  its  sinister  aspect  of  surly,  suffering  barrenness.  The 
sky  was  heavy  with  clouds,  leaving  gashes  of  blackness 
and  broken  patches  of  hopeless  gray,  threatening  and 
mysterious,  behind  them  as  they  rolled  ominously  along. 

The  fine,  handsome,  good-hearted  Crown  Prince  who 
had  presented  so  heroic  an  appearance  on  horseback  in 
all  out-of-door  pageants,  and  who  had  so  loved  to  wrap 
himself  in  his  General's  cloak  as  in  a  King's  mantle, 
had  suddenly  dwindled,  as  it  were,  to  the  figure  of  a 
pitiful  invalid. 

He  had  grown  old  and  sad  and  weary,  all  in  a  few 
weeks;  his  great  back  curved  outward  between  his  thin 
shoulders,  with  that  pathetic  stoop  of  those  whe  are 
trying  to  cheat  the  keenly  searching  glance  of  Pallida 
Mors.  The  gray  atmosphere  of  an  incurable  malady 
enwrapped  him  like  a  shroud;  there  was  something  fixed, 
irreparable,  in  the  languor  of  his  every  pose,  in  the  hope- 
lessness of  his  expression,  and  the  little  wrinkles  near 
his  eyes,  the  deeper  lines  by  the  nose  and  mouth,  half 
concealed  by  the  fast-whitening  gold  of  the  mustache, 
spelled  despair. 

The  doom  hanging  over  him  had  already  accentuated 
his  features — his  cheek-bones  looked  more  prominent, 
his  eyes  more  hollow,  and  beneath  them  was  a  faint 
purple  tinge — while  he  walked  already  rather  feebly, 
bending  forward  as  if  to  avoid  the  future,  and  his 
whole  aspect  was  piteous,  compressed,  and  miserably 
incapable. 

To  Prince  William  this  spectacle  was  heart-breaking. 
Whenever  he  approached  his  stricken  father,  a  wave  of 
sorrowful  tenderness  swept  over  him,  and  he  longed  to 
put  his  strong  young  arm  about  him,  to  shield  the  weak- 

119 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

ness  which  was  so  apparent  with  his  own  buoyant 
strength.  But  he  felt  that  this  would  only  bring  nearer 
to  the  wretched  man  the  fulness  of  his  misfortune,  and 
so  he  followed  the  safest  course,  which  was  to  appear 
indifferent. 

Such  a  repression  of  strong  feeling  had  the  natural 
result  of  making  him  look  exceedingly  grim,  almost 
angry,  and  as  if  actually  irritated,  whereas  he  passion- 
ately desired  to  tell  him  all  he  felt,  how  profound  and 
unaltered  were  his  love  and  sympathy,  and  what  was 
the  extent  of  his  distress,  a  distress  furious  almost  in 
its  intensity. 

To  save  his  father's  life  was  William's  one  wish — 
feverish,  restless,  extreme,  bringing  him  to  the  verge  of 
losing  all  self-control,  incessant,  over-powering;  and 
when  the  distinguished  German  surgeons  declared  again, 
after  another  minute  examination,  that  an  immediate 
operation  offered  the  only  chance  of  recovery,  the  Prince 
more  than  ever  fixed  his  gaze  upon  that  one  ray  of 
light,  that  dazzling  beam  of  hope  piercing  like  a  spear 
the  dark  wretchedness  which  had  engulfed  him. 

It  was  then  that  the  most  sinister  part  of  the  drama 
to  which  I  have  already  alluded,  and  which  was  to  last 
more  than  a  year,  began.  It  was  then  that  Prince 
"William,  terribly,  passionately  overwrought,  and  strug- 
gling to  maintain  his  self-possession  in  the  face  of  fright- 
ful odds,  assumed  an  authority  of  manner  he  had  never 
before  displayed. 

Those  who  were  near  him  at  that  time  noticed  that 
all  softness,  all  pliability,  had  vanished;  his  looks,  the 
very  sound  of  his  voice,  became  adamantine;  for,  al- 
though he  had  been  suspecting  something  wrong,  yet 
in  the  wildest  flight  of  his  imagination  he  never  could 
have  brought  himself  to  believe  that  the  resolution  of 
those  who  for  purposes  of  their  own  desired  that  Fred- 

120 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

erick  should  reign,  "  coute  que  cofae"  was  such  as  to 
banish  all  scruples  from  their  souls. 

The  knowledge  he  gained  then  was  sufficient  to  un- 
hinge a  brain  less  steady  than  his.  It  thrust  him  into 
hell,  pure  and  simple,  and  there  were  moments  when  he 
thought  he  could  no  longer  stand  the  strain  it  put  upon 
him.  He  advocated  his  opinions  with  a  burning  ear- 
nestness which  startled  his  grandfather,  and  even  Bis- 
marck, who  also  upheld  the  necessity  of  an  operation, 
though,  as  shown  in  the  previous  chapter,  on  entirely 
different  grounds. 

From  the  moment  when  the  secret  abdication  of  Fred- 
erick had  become  known  to  a  very  few,  these  few  had  de- 
termined to  oppose  this  private  arrangement  by  every 
means  that  could  be  devised,  and  were  ready  to  attempt 
every  conceivable  form  of  resistance.  At  the  period  of 
which  I  speak,  they  were  casting  about  here,  there,  and 
everywhere  for  means  with  which  to  defeat  the  now 
grimly  powerful  son,  who  was  so  tenacious  in  his  life- 
saving  endeavor. 

In  those  days  the  knife  was  still  looked  upon  with 
dread,  and  the  risks  of  an  operation  popularly  considered 
as  being  far  more  endangering  to  the  patient  than  the 
evil  for  which  it  was  applied,  a  circumstance  of  which 
they  made  precious  good  use. 

I  have  held  in  my  hand  an  enlarged  model  of  the 
Crown  Prince's  larynx,  as  it  appeared  at  the  time  of  the 
first  serious  examination.  Below  the  vocal  cord  from 
the  left  side  of  the  organ — or,  to  be  exact,  from  the  left 
inner  surface  of  the  thyroid  cartilage,  projected  a  tiny, 
rounded  point,  an  innocent-looking  elevation  of  the 
mucous  membrane,  nothing  more. 

Operation  at  such  an  early  stage  of  a  malignant 
growth  is  a  comparatively  easy  matter  to  modern  lar- 
yngological  surgery,  and  can  be  done  without  impair- 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

ment  of  the  power  of  speech,  consisting  essentially  in 
penetrating  the  cartilages  and  scraping  off  the  tumor 
with  a  sharp-edged  instrument  known  as  a  Volkmann 
spoon. 

Even  at  a  later  stage,  when  the  cartilage  beneath 
the  soft  tissues  is  involved,  the  more  serious  removal  of 
one-half  of  the  larynx  is  often  successfully  performed, 
and,  especially  since  "  the  functional  results  as  regards 
breathing  and  the  preservation  of  the  voice  are  often 
satisfactory,"  this  should  always  be  done  when  the 
patient's  physical  condition  and  the  extent  of  the 
growth  admits  of  it;  for  even  if  a  cure  does  not  result, 
life  will  be  at  least  greatly  prolonged. 

Since  the  Royal  patient's  general  health  was,  all  things 
considered,  excellent,  and  his  physical  strength  very 
much  above  the  average,  there  could  be  no  question  as 
to  the  advisability  of  having  an  operation  performed 
at  once.  So  thought  Prince  William,  so  thought  the 
poor  old  Emperor  now  too,  so  thought  every  sensible 
and  just  being,  including  the  great  surgical  authorities 
whose  advice  had  been  sought;  but  there  were  others 
who  would  not  allow  the  risk  to  be  taken,  who,  noticing 
how  greatly  the  wretched  condition  of  his  only  son  had 
reacted  upon  the  aged  Emperor,  and  how  unlikely  it 
was  that  the  latter's  life  would  be  much  further  pro- 
longed, desired  only  one  thing,  and  that  was  that  their 
champion  should  win — were  it  by  a  few  lengths  only— 
this  ghastly  race  against  death,  of  which  a  Crown  was 
to  be  the  prize. 

No  wonder  Prince  William  was  seized  with  sickening 
disgust ! 

Were  his  efforts  to  prove  useless?  Would  he  ever 
be  able  to  accomplish  that  which  he  had  set  himself  to 
do?  Would  he  ever  see  his  father  out  in  the  air  and 
the  sun  again,  fearlessly  facing  the  light  of  the  open 

122 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

heavens,  a  healed  man,  or  would  he  be  compelled  to 
watch  him  sink  slowly  into  the  grave,  tortured  and 
breathless,  denied  even  the  right  of  yielding  to  his 
agony,  since  to  the  last  he  must  remain  upright  and 
smiling,  as  behooves  the  Heir  to  a  great  Throne  or  the 
Ruler  of  a  great  people. 

The  thought  was  maddening,  and  Prince  William 
must  then  have  cruelly  realized  the  fact  that  political 
ambition  can  create  monsters,  beings  to  whom  all  that 
is  healthy,  normal,  natural,  becomes  as  naught,  and 
who,  like  criminals,  work  in  darkness,  and  flee  the  truth 
as  if  it  were  a  consuming  fire. 

It  was  at  that  moment  when  the  son  was  thinking  of 
his  father's  distress,  almost  as  if  it  had  been  his  own, 
when  he  thought  of  his  sufferings  as  if  his  own  flesh 
were  being  tortured,  as  well  as  his  spirit,  that  Dr.  Morell 
Mackenzie,  London's  best  known  throat  specialist,  ar- 
rived upon  the  scene,  summoned  by  a  secret  and  urgent 
messenger. 

The  British  and  the  Prussians  were  once  more  face 
to  face! 

Crown  Prince  Frederick  had  pledged  himself  solemnly 
to  relinquish  his  rights  to  the  Throne  "if"  he  proved  to 
be  afflicted  with  a  mortal  disease — a  possibility  which  his 
party  could  not  therefore  afford  to  admit. 

Even  extirpated,  a  cancer  is  a  cancer,  and  such  ac- 
cidents as  recurrence  have  been  heard  of;  so  there  was 
no  cancer  ! 

The  German  surgeons,  great  and  undeniable  as  was 
their  skill  and  their  fame,  were,  nevertheless,  human, 
which  means  liable  to  err!  They  had  declared  that 
they  were  dealing  with  a  malignant  growth,  but  their 
diagnosis  was  not  necessarily  infallible !  Why  not 
then  submit  the  Royal  patient's  case  to.  another  au- 
thority, a  foreign  one  this  time,  who  could  not  be  in 
9  123 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

any  way  influenced  by  or  even  interested  in  German 
politics  ? 

The  late  Sir  Morell  Mackenzie — 17  Harley  Street, 
London — was  an  eminent  practitioner;  he  had  made  a 
speciality  of  diseases  of  the  larynx;  he  had  acquired, 
not  only  in  England,  but  all  over  the  Continent,  a  repu- 
tation fully  justified  by  his  science,  and  also  by  his  ex- 
traordinarily developed  intelligence  and  depth  of  thought. 
He  was,  moreover,  a  man  of  taste,  besides  a  savant;  an 
artist  by  instinct,  as  well  as  a  wielder  of  scalpel  or 
lancet.  Attractive  in  manner,  pleasing  in  conversation, 
of  refined  and  diplomatic  bearing,  Sir  Morell  Mackenzie 
— 17  Harley  Street,  London — was  the  man  "par  excel- 
lence" to  enter  palaces  gracefully,  to  approach  the  bed- 
side of  some  illustrious  invalid  with  a  smile  upon  his 
closely  shaven  lips,  which  put  to  flight  the  mere  idea  of 
suffering  and  of  death. 

From  the  top  of  his  shrewd,  sleek  head  to  the  tips  of 
his  exquisitely  varnished  patent-leather  boots,  he  was 
perfect,  absolutely  perfect,  and  none  could  question  his 
fitness  to  live  on  terms  of  positive  intimacy  with  Em- 
perors, Kings,  and  Princesses. 

Even  his  motto  " Luceo  Non  Uro"  (I  give  light,  I  do 
not  burn)  was  encouraging.  "I  give  light!  I  do  not 
burn!" — how  soothing  to  the  anxious  relations  crowd- 
ing around  a  beloved  patient,  to  know  that  to  this  won- 
derful surgeon  there  was  no  such  fatal  thing  as  obscu- 
rity! How  delightful  for  the  patient  himself  to  realize 
that  here  was  a  man  who,  if  he  followed  his  own  precepts 
— which  he  undoubtedly  always  did — would  refrain  from 
all  those  violent  means  so  dear  to  the  majority  of  his 
"confreres"*  "I  do  not  burn!  nor  cut!  nor  slice!  nor 
hurt  in  any  way,  shape,  or  fashion!  My  delicate  fingers 
will  barely  touch  Your  Royal  Highness,  will  scarcely 
palpate  Your  Imperial  Majesty,  for  I  take  no  liberties 

124 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

with  the  august  bodies  entrusted  to  my  care,  and  I 
know  soothe- words  for  the  bitterest  trials!" 

So  spake  for  him,  Sir  Morell  Mackenzie's  every  look 
and  gesture. 

Introduced  to  a  conference  of  German  physicians  and 
surgeons,  who  gave,  I'  fear,  but  poor  attention  to  the 
polish  of  their  honest,  square-toed  boots,  and  who  dif- 
fused, perchance,  in  the  palatial  atmosphere  of  the  Berlin- 
Schloss  rather  a  faint  reminiscence  of  iodoform  and  of 
musty,  ponderous,  medical  tomes,  than  of  otto  of  roses 
and  opopanax,  Sir  Morell's  whole  dainty  soul  revolted! 

He  had  been  called  there  as  a  distinguished  colleague, 
who  was  to  take  henceforth  the  leading  part  in  the  man- 
agement of  the  Crown  Prince's  case;  they  humbly  sub- 
mitted to  him  their  opinion  and  the  proofs  thereof,  their 
homely  faces  glowing  the  while  with  interest,  their  eager 
eyes,  all  or  almost  all,  glittering  behind  serviceable  spec- 
tacles of  the  plainest  make,  their  square  heads  bent 
forward  in  respectful  attention  and  all-embracing  in- 
terest. 

He,  the  Great  Man  of  17  Harley  Street,  London,  calm 
and  gentle  as  usual,  looked  like  a  being  of  vastly  differ- 
ent mould — surely  the  ordinary  brand  of  surgeon's  clay 
had  not  been  used  in  his  manufacture — his  manner  was 
staid  and  definite,  his  slightest  action  remarkable  for  its 
finished  deliberation;  he  drew  out  his  handkerchief  or 
slipped  off  his  supremely  well-fitting  gloves  as  if  he  had 
previously  thought  the  matter  out  from  all  its  various 
points  of  view,  and  had  decided  for  all  time  and  eternity 
how  he  meant  to  do  it. 

Professor  von  Bergman's  intentness  on  such  trifles  as 
cancers  really  seemed  for  the  moment  quite  unpardon- 
ably  out  of  place,  and  the  Teutonic  energy  of  his  col- 
leagues rather  oppressive.  Indeed,  there  was  a  sugges- 
tion of  "camaraderie"  looming  up  in  all  this,  a  definite 

125 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

attempt  to  draw  near,  which  a  man  of  Sir  Morell's  im- 
mense importance  could  not  dream  of  encouraging. 

The  professor — I  was  told  this  by  an  eye-witness — 
stood  with  his  feet  turned  in  more  than  usual  and  look- 
ing still  full  of  friendliness,  but  as  if  gradually  becoming 
uneasy;  another  of  the  surgeons  appeared  more  pugna- 
cious and  ready  to  defend  Germany,  and  her  entire 
medical  corps,  against  any  one  who  dared  to  attack 
them,  but  most  especially  against  that  superior  person 
from  over  the  seas  who  glanced  superciliously  at  him 
now  and  again  with  raised  eyebrows,  for  after  each  sen- 
tence pronounced  by  Sir  Morell  he  closed  his  own 
mouth  with  a  vicious  smack,  like  a  man  who  is  attempt- 
ing to  keep  his  temper  in,  by  wholly  artificial  means. 

It  was,  indeed,  a  pleasant  consultation,  from  which 
the  German  surgeons  emerged,  with  the  agreeable  sen- 
sation that  all  the  firm  and  settled  facts  they  had  ac- 
cumulated about  their  profession  since  their  student 
days  had  been  tumbled  to  pieces  at  one  blow,  without 
noise  or  uproar,  but  without  any  regard  either  for  truth 
or  for  their  feelings.  Professor  von  Bergman  looked  as 
if  a  personal  injury  had  been  done  to  him,  and  the  pug- 
nacious consultant  whistled  mechanically  the  tune  of 
"Die  Wacht  am  Rhein,"  interrupting  himself  every  two 
minutes  to  mutter  through  his  clinched  teeth  personal 
opinions  quite  beside  the  question. 

Sir  Morell,  during  the  greater  portion  of  the  debate, 
that  is,  when  not  himself  speaking,  had  looked  as  utter- 
ly detached  and  uninterested  as  if  listening  to  people 
talking  an  unknown  language.  When  his  opponents 
ceased  describing  the  Crown  Prince's  symptoms,  he 
turned  towards  them  with  the  air  of  a  man  who  has 
done  exactly  the  right  thing  in  exactly  the  right  man- 
ner, and  declared  in  bland,  calmly  refined  accents  that 
he  never  accepted  as  true  anything  which  he  had  not 

126 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

investigated  and  proved  to  his  own  satisfaction  to  be 
true,  owing  this,  he  added,  smilingly,  to  the  sincerity 
on  which  he  prided  himself  beyond  anything  else. 

The  German  surgeons  should  have  been  overwhelmed 
with  confusion  by  this  magnificent  speech,  and  yet  they 
suddenly  looked  at  him  with  eyes  so  expressive  that  he 
came  as  near  getting  disconcerted  as  he  had  ever  been 
in  his  life.  No  doubt,  as  he  met  their  gaze,  he  suddenly 
realized  that  these  good  people  of  the  square-toed  ex- 
tremities and  inelegant  attire  were  more  clear-sighted 
and  forceful  than  he  had  imagined,  and  that  they  would 
not  be  quite  so  easily  dealt  with  as  he  had  been  led  to 
believe. 

All  the  knowledge  about  the  case  he  had  acquired 
previously  at  second-hand  surely  slipped  away  from  him 
at  this  instant  as  water  slips  out  of  a  basket,  and  had  it 
not  been  for  the  "nerve,"  which  he  certainly  possessed, 
he  might,  perchance,  have  fled  from  the  pitiableness  of 
it  all.  Instead  of  which  he  daringly  assumed,  from  then 
on  to  the  bitter  end,  an  urbanely  menacing  attitude, 
which  he  alone  could  have  invented,  and  which  was 
destined  to  often  defeat  their  fiercest  bluntness. 

When  the  German  surgeons  grasped  the  situation  and 
comprehended,  later  on,  the  tactics  of  their  delicious  op- 
ponent, they  were  filled  with  a  fury  which  most  emphat- 
ically must  have  been  forgiven  on  High,  and  at  once. 

Sir  Morell,  they  saw  it  clearly  now,  desired  to  show 
them  how  simple  and  unscientific  they  were,  and  to 
try  and  make  them  feel  self-conscious  in  their  ignorance. 
He  had  laid  plans,  calmly  and  deliberately,  in  the  cer- 
tainty of  his  own  superiority ;  it  was  therefore  their  most 
sacred  duty  to  shatter  those  plans,  which,  they  knew, 
were  life-endangering  to  their  illustrious  patient,  and 
to  utterly  rout  Sir  Morell!  They  did  not,  unfortunately, 
quite  understand  as  yet  that  they  were  far  less  astute 

127 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

than  the  Great  Man  from  Harley  Street,  who,  feeling 
assured  of  the  vigorous  support  of  his  allies — the  Crown- 
Prince's  party — attacked  them  from  every  side  before 
they  were  prepared  for  the  battle. 

Sir  Morell,  who  was  very  determined  —  another  of 
his  distinctive  and  superfine  qualities — having,  as  he 
thought,  filled  the  enemy  with  confusion  in  the  first  en- 
gagement, lost  no  time  in  endeavoring  to  persuade  at 
least  one  German  celebrity  that  he  was  ready  not  only 
to  offer,  but  also  to  give  undeniable  proof  of  his  opin- 
ion, and  so  set  to  work  with  impressive  solemnity  and 
without  wasting  a  moment. 

On  the  day  following  his  arrival  in  Berlin,  and  again 
a  couple  of  weeks  later,  he  submitted  to  Professor  von 
Virchow  for  microscopical  examination  specimens  ex- 
tracted from  the  patient's  throat,  and  it  cannot  be 
gainsaid  that  this  excellent  man  reported  that  he  dis- 
covered nothing  to  "excite  the  suspicion  of  wider  and 
graver  disease  than  a  benign  growth.'' 

Professor  von  Bergman  felt  too  hostile,  too  wronged, 
to  reply  at  once  to  this  extraordinary  statement.  His 
relations  with  those  of  the  antagonistic  clan,  with  whom 
he  came  in  contact,  were  now  frigidly  polite  and  as  per- 
functory as  he  could  make  them,  but  they  were  soon 
to  discover  in  him  a  character  of  singular  dogmatism 
and  pertinacity,  and  when  he  became  aware  that  the 
English  Doctor  was  telling  to  all  whom  it  might  or 
might  not  concern  that  Doctor  von  Bergman  was 
"guilty  of  absolute  brutality  and  of  a  quite  unprofessional 
roughness  of  treatment"  with  regard  to  his  Imperial 
patient,  hell  broke  loose  in  good  earnest  in  the  shape  of 
a  succession  of  unhappy  scenes  and  undignified  contro- 
versies, during  the  course  of  which  ponderous  paving- 
stones  were  thrown  from  one  camp  into  the  other,  and 
terrible  accusations  were  exchanged. 

128 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

Professor  von  Virchow,  standing  midway  between 
the  two  defended  positions,  received  for  his  share  the 
bruising  wind  of  most  of  those  brutal,  ill-directed,  and 
ill-aimed  missiles,  and  when  he  attempted  to  vindicate 
himself  by  asserting,  microscope  in  hand,  that  the  "  speci- 
mens" sent  to  him  definitely  proved  the  innocuous  char- 
acter of  the  Crown  Prince's  malady,  his  colleagues  did  not 
hesitate  to  tell  him  before  witnesses  that  Dr.  Mackenzie 
"had  purposely  drawn  out  with  his  forceps  pieces  of  the 
healthy  right  vocal  cord  in  order  to  triumphantly  sustain 
his  diagnosis,  since  a  man  of  his  capability  could  not  in- 
advertently mistake  one  side  of  the  larynx  for  the  other, 
or  confound  an  inflamed  and  cancerous  growth  with  per- 
fectly normal  tissues." 

The  atmosphere  around  the  unfortunate  Crown  Prince 
grew,  meanwhile,  more  and  more  stormy,  and  as  he  wear- 
ily turned  the  last  pages  of  this  inexplicable  book  of 
life,  which  he  had  still  found  so  interesting  a  few  short 
months  before,  he  sincerely  envied  the  lot  of  the  sorriest 
beggar  in  the  gutters  of  his  father's  capital. 

A  black  melancholy,  a  languid  drowsiness  overcame 
him  at  times,  through  which  faintly  echoed  the  sound 
of  the  battle  raging  about  his  miserable  fate;  his  heart 
ached  with  longing  for  the  past,  for  the  future — which 
he  had  planned  out  for  himself  and  which  now  lay  in 
sordid  atoms  at  his  feet. 

At  other  times  all  his  faculties  became  singularly 
acute,  his  brain  grew  alert  to  think,  his  heart  to  feel 
keenly;  his  eyes,  suddenly  glittering  as  with  fever,  roved 
everywhere,  observing  swiftly  everything  that  passed, 
darting  from  one  person  to  the  other  as  if  eagerly  de- 
sirous to  read  their  innermost  thoughts,  while  a  dreadful 
expression  of  anguish  dwelt  on  his  pallid,  sharpened 
features,  and  his  nervously  trembling  hands  clasped  and 
unclasped  quite  unconsciously,  as  if  he  was  forcibly  hold- 

129 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

ing  himself  back  from  succumbing  to  some  frantic  out- 
break of  passion  or  of  despair. 

Those  who  watched  him  grew  exhausted  in  mind  and 
body  as  they  gazed  at  this  constant  uneasiness  and  dis- 
tress, sometimes  already  aggravated  by  spells  of  short 
and  almost  convulsive  breathing,  which  added  a  pang 
of  agony  to  his  torment  and  during  which  he  stared 
fixedly  at  them  as  if  dumbly  claiming  more  sympathy, 
more  help,  in  his  great  need! 

His  party,  burning  with  the  desire  to  remove  him 
from  Berlin,  and  from  the  reach  of  those  too  perspicacious 
German  surgeons  who  stubbornly  held  to  their  opinion 
that  he  was  suffering  from  cancer,  suddenly  conceived 
the  amazing  idea  of  taking  as  a  pretext  the  celebration 
of  Queen  Victoria's  Jubilee,  where  her  noble  and  brill- 
iant son-in-law  was  certainly  entitled  and  expected  to 
appear. 

A  sly  and  exceedingly  jocose  device,  certainly;  novel 
and  surprising,  if  you  will,  under  the  circumstances,  but 
which  naturally  maddened  Prince  William  when  he 
heard  of  it,  since  he  instantly  realized  the  motives  by 
which  it  was  prompted.  His  physical  and  mental  hor- 
ror of  the  whole  damnable  plan  increased  by  leaps  and 
bounds;  his  very  imagination  began  to  shrink,  as  if  it 
longed  to  escape  to  some  region  distant  from  all  those 
atrocious  plots  and  comedies,  in  which  there  was  some- 
thing so  dreadfully  unnatural  —  he  acknowledged  this 
later  himself. 

Desperately  he  pleaded  with  the  Emperor,  entreating 
him  to  forbid  so  grewsome  a  thing — pleaded,  stormed, 
implored,  threatened,  but  Bismarck  was  always  there 
between  them,  undermining  his  influence,  paralyzing 
his  efforts,  maiming  his  best  arguments  by  a  violent  and 
immoderate  espousal  of  his  cause,  which  left  the  poor 
trembling  old  Monarch  absolutely  crushed,  and  rendered 

130 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

thereby  more  inclined  to  hearken  to  the  insidious  per- 
suasions of  those  who  spoke  of  hope  and  of  recovery 
for  his  only  son. 

Of  course,  there  were  many  only  too  ready  and  eager 
to  declare,  that  Prince  William's  love  of  display  and 
ardent  desire  to  everlastingly  hold  the  first  place,  dic- 
tated his  conduct  in  attempting  to  prevent  his  father 
from  appearing  in  the  Jubilee  procession.  "  He  is  afraid 
of  being  cast  into  the  shade;"  this  was  the  charitable 
verdict  of  those  always  disposed  to  place  an  evil  con- 
struction upon  his  motives,  and  since  such  injustice  has 
nothing  particularly  soothing  about  it,  it  is  clear  that  it 
did  not  contribute  to  make  the  Prince's  attitude  either 
more  genial  or  more  hearty. 

He  was  stronger  than  all  of  his  detractors  put  to- 
gether; he  fought  not  for  himself  but  for  his  father's 
life.  For  his  sake  he  had  set  himself  the  task  of  winning 
this  sorely  disputed  battle.  Even  if  every  one  else  hither- 
to supporting  him  should  relinquish  the  struggle,  he 
would  continue  alone  to  uphold  truth  and  duty. 

His  allies  despaired  ?  Very  well ;  they  did  not  love  as 
he  did,  then,  that  was  all!  He,  the  son,  would  not  yield, 
would  not  let  his  father  go  down  thus  to  the  grave. 
There  was  a  chance,  there  was  a  cure;  he,  unaided,  would 
enforce  this  one  remedy  to  so  grim  an  evil;  he  would 
not  leave  the  disheartened  sufferer  in  other  hands  any 
longer;  he  himself  would  watch  over  him,  nurse  him, 
comfort  him,  and  finally  save  him — save  him  himself, 
since  every  one  now  seemed  to  abandon  him  to  his 
wretched  fate. 

The  passion  of  his  determination  had  become  almost 
unbearable  to  nerves  and  heart,  a  passion  strong  enough 
to  conquer  worlds — and  yet  he  failed! 

The  turmoil  in  his  soul,  of  love  struggling  against  de- 
spair, the  desire  to  save,  combating  a  sort  of  frenzy  of 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

anger  inspired  by  his  antagonists'  despicable  methods, 
his  almost  inspired  eloquence,  the  manliness  of  his  whole 
attitude,  his  audacious  fearlessness  of  the  world  and  its 
comments,  the  splendor  of  his  aim,  the  strangely  pure 
loftiness  of  his  purpose,  all  were  in  vain,  for  since  Dr. 
von  Virchow's  report  had  been  made  known  in  con- 
junction with  Dr.  Mackenzie's,  the  theory  of  cancer 
had  been  finally  done  away  with,  for  the  time  being, 
at  least,  and  a  factitious  gladness  pervaded  every  cor- 
ner of  that  palace  where  so  abominable  a  drama  was 
still  in  progress,  lighting  upon  each  face  a  smile  that  to 
the  seeing  eye  was  but  a  mechanical  rictus. 

The  aged  Emperor  had  been  persuaded  to  hope,  and 
he,  poor  old  man,  so  great  and  good  and  kind  of  heart, 
did  not  for  a  second  realize  that  those  who  so  cleverly 
induced  him  to  permit  his  beloved  son's  departure  were 
casting  the  dice  for  that  son's  doom. 

Even  the  patient  himself  had  now  been  brought  to 
believe  in  the  falsity  of  the  German  surgeon's  diagnosis 
— it  -is  so  pleasant  to  credit  the  fallibility  of  those 
who  predict  the  worst  to  us — his  poor  dulled  eyes,  which 
had  seemed  to  shrivel  in  his  head,  began  once  more  to 
sparkle  with  life;  a  rosy  tint  crept  back  into  his  white 
face,  color  to  his  pale,  parched  lips.  Truly  his  whole 
being  shone  with  vivacity,  and  he  displayed  something 
of  a  child's  eagerness  to  resume  a  game  of  play  ruth- 
lessly interrupted  by  some  cruel  hand. 

These  tall,  blond  men,  with  clear,  white  skins,  blue 
eyes,  and  hair  and  beards  the  shade  of  ripening  corn, 
are  transformed  often  by  a  mere  flush  of  joy  and  of 
hope. 

Merciful  Heavens !  were  they  all  mad  ?  thought  Prince 
William.  Would  not  one,  excepting  those  who  knew  but 
chose  to  conceal  their  knowledge,  for  motives  too  ugly 
to  mention  again — notice  how  frayed  was  the  silver- 

132 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

cord  holding  this  temporarily  rejuvenated  soul  and 
body  together  ?  Would  no  one  realize  but  himself  that 
false  hopes,  and  false  hopes  alone,  were  just  then  pour- 
ing, like  some  frantic  torrent,  the  last  flash  of  vitality 
through  this  emaciated  sufferer  ? 

The  young  Prince  had  too  keen-witted  a  nature  not 
to  know,  however,  when  he  was  beaten,  and  when  the 
time  for  vehement  protest  was  past.  The  assured  and 
phlegmatic  bearing  of  his  father's  party  struck  him  as 
extremely  ill-omened.  What  was  the  good  of  attempt- 
ing to  enforce  his  views  any  longer  ?  Did  he  not  see 
how  very  nearly  every  one  now  hung  on  the  "  pronuncia- 
mientoes"  of  the  Great  Sir  Morell,  those  soft  dictates 
gracefully  worded,  which  were  as  sweet  milk  for  babes 
and  with  which  he  seemed  to  gargle  his  mouth  vo- 
luptuously. No!  he,  Prince  William,  could  do  noth- 
ing more  just  then,  that  was  certain!  Already  his  at- 
titude was  looked  upon  with  an  expression  of  angry 
amaze.  He,  in  his  distress,  even  honestly  strove  to  be- 
lieve that  perchance  his  fears  had  been  unfounded,  that 
perchance  it  was  he  who  was  mistaken,  but  it  was  of 
no  avail.  He  was  too  clear-sighted  to  be  deceived  even 
for  a  moment,  nor  could  he  succeed  in  deceiving  him- 
self. He  found  the  depth  of  his  utter  helplessness,  but 
that  was  all  he  found. 

Henceforth  his  father  became  as  a  shadow  to  him, 
something  far  away  from  his  own  life,  clouded  already 
by  the  grewsome  pallor  of  death ;  he  did  not  even  try  to 
conceal  his  intense  desire  to  keep  away  from  him — he 
did  not  say  so,  but  it  was  difficult  not  to  see  it  by  his 
manner,  and  even  the  few  kindly  disposed  towards  him 
began  to  regard  his  conduct  as  singularly  unfilial. 

His  enemies,  however — and  just  then  they  were  legion 
— proclaimed  abroad  this  alleged  unfilial  behavior,  as 
if  it  delighted  them  to  have  at  last  found  a  seeming 

133 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

ground  for  their  accusations,  and  asserted  triumphant- 
ly that  he  was  furious  to  see  his  chances  of  succession 
recede  in  the  dim  distance. 

A  Rubicon  was  crossed!  From  henceforth  Prince 
William  was  held  up  to  public  obloquy  as  a  bad  son,  a 
cold,  cruel,  feelingless  being,  obsessed  by  but  one  wish, 
one  idea — to  reign. 

The  summer  had  come  with  its  burden  of  roses  and 
of  perfumes.  Potsdam  slumbered  in  sunny  stillness, 
the  gardens  and  lawns  of  the  "  Marmorpalast"  laughed 
in  the  balmy  breeze  beneath  a  wealth  of  blossoming 
shrubs  and  murmuring  trees,  with  the  " Heiligensee" 
shimmering  silver-blue  and  soft  to  the  eye  in  the  warm 
haze  of  June. 

The  pretty  little  plump  pink  -  and  -  white  Princelets, 
with  their  shining  curls  floating  behind  them,  ran  gayly 
about,  watched  by  their  courageous,  high-hearted  moth- 
er, who  strove  to  show  them  always  a  brow  as  unclouded 
as  the  sky  was  just  then,  although  her  burden  of  sorrow 
was  almost  more  than  she  could  bear. 

The  perennial  changes  in  nature  which  he  had  loved 
to  watch,  what  were  they  now  to  Prince  William  ?  The 
early  flowers  peeping  shyly  from  the  brown  earth,  the 
first  primrose  of  the  year,  which  he  and  his  young  wife 
had  searched  for  with  laughing  emulation;  nay,  even 
the  joyful  voices  of  his  children — to  him,  hitherto,  the 
sweetest  of  music — what  were  they  now  to  this  embit- 
tered and  cruelly  wronged  man? 

There  was  no  time  in  his  over-burdened, over-wrought 
life  just  then  to  meditate  over  the  birth  of  a  snow-drop, 
or  the  radiance  of  his  little  ones.  He  found  opportu- 
nity to  go  through  all  his  routine  duties  as  a  soldier,  to 
accomplish  all  the  constantly  accumulating  tasks  which 
his  grandfather's  increasing  age  and  fatigue  laid  upon 
him;  but  whatever  he  did  was  done  with  a  sort  of 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

dogged  resolution,  that  left  no  room  for  smiles  or 
recreation. 

The  crumbling  of  his  great  saving-work,  the  triumph 
of  the  persistent  and  criminal  deception,  which  was  being 
put  before  the  world,  the  savage  blows  struck  repeatedly 
upon  his  heart  and  which  had  seared  and  seamed  it 
like  vitriol,  had  told  upon  him  more  than  any  one  save 
his  faithful,  devoted  wife  could  divine.  The  fineness 
of  his  soul,  his  punctilious  sense  of  honor,  revolted 
against  the  moral  blindness  of  those  who  persecuted 
him  and  had  condemned  his  father  to  a  slow,  torturing 
death.  He  understood  the  full  horror  of  the  situation, 
but  their  conduct  seemed,  the  more  he  brooded  over  it, 
opposed  to  nature;  to  him  it  was  conceivable  that  one 
human  being  should  wrong  another,  that  jealousies 
should  arise  which  might  lead  to  open  murders,  to  de- 
sertions, to  betrayals ;  he  knew  the  world  and  its  ways 
too  well  to  be  surprised  at  much,  but  he  recoiled  at 
what  was  taking  place  around  his  stricken  father. 

How  could  human  beings  descend  to  such  depths? 
He  did  not  know!  And  when  his  thought  wandered 
towards  his  father,  now  being  prepared  and  braced  to 
perform  his  part  in  one  of  the  greatest  pageants  the 
world  has  witnessed,  his  feelings  could  find  no  expres- 
sion fitting  so  inhuman  a  deed. 

"//  regnera"  seems  to  have  been  the  catchword  of  the 
Crown  Prince's  "  valiant "  party  at  that  period. 

On  June  14,  1887,  the  man  who  so  shortly  afterwards 
was  to  be  called  by  the  English-speaking  public  ''Fred- 
erick the  Noble,"  arrived  in  England,  where  he  had  al- 
ways been  extraordinarily  popular.  In  addition  to  the 
charm  of  his  good  looks,  there  was  added  that  sense  so 
dear  to  humanity  that  he  would  become  one  of  the 
most  prominent  Sovereigns  of  his  time,  and  in  the 
deepest  depth  of  many  an  English  statesman's  brain  was 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

the  hope  that  when  that  day  came  they  would  find  in 
him  a  valuable  ally,  since  his  fondness  for  Great  Britain 
was  well  known,  as  well  as  his  causes  of  friendliness 
towards  that  mighty  Realm. 

Also,  there  was  not  in  Frederick  the  spirit  of  criticism, 
founded  on  knowledge,  for  which  his  son  was  already 
then  dreaded.  He  never  discussed  practical  matters  in  a 
dry,  practical  manner,  asked  awkward  questions,  nor 
pointed  out  simply  but  quite  convincingly  the  absurd- 
ity of  the  answers  or  of  the  awkward  silences  that  fre- 
quently followed,  as  Prince  William  had  been  known 
to  do,  shaking  thereby  the  immemorial  calm  of  many 
a  weighty  conscience. 

Frederick  was,  moreover,  a  striking -looking  man,  at 
whom  all  gazed  with  admiration,  remarking  in  awed 
whispers  upon  the  beauty  of  that  grand,  golden -bearded 
rider  and  the  beauty  of  his  horses.  Even  had  he  be- 
longed to  a  far  humbler  grade,  he  was  one  of  those  per- 
sonalities whom  it  is  quite  unnecessary  to  point  out,  for 
he  was  far  too  visible  to  the  outward  eye  for  that.  He 
was,  indeed,  so  large  and  so  handsome  that  one  could 
not  have  failed  to  observe  him  had  he  swept  a  crossing, 
and,  as  it  was,  he  created  a  sensation  wherever  he  went. 

Those  who  watched  him  closely  after  his  arrival  in 
London  however,  felt  as  if  they  had  never  seen  him 
clearly  before,  for  in  the  searching  illumination  of  those 
summer  days — there  are  sometimes  brilliant  summer 
days  even  in  London — in  the  naked  light  of  noon  es- 
pecially, his  skin  seemed  dry  and  stretched,  his  eyes 
fainter  in  color,  with  the  fires  in  them  partly  extin- 
guished, like  the  flame  of  a  lamp  shining  through 
ground  glass. 

His  moods,  too,  altered  rapidly  and  inexplicably. 
Sometimes  he  appeared  dull,  weary,  almost  sleepy  and 
unwilling  to  speak  or  move,  glancing  aimlessly  about 

136 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

him  as  if  thinking  of  something  other  than  present  mat- 
ters; then  suddenly  roused  to  startling  gayety  and 
bright  talkativeness,  full  of  spirits  and  merriment,  and 
speaking  of  the  future  as  if  he  saw  it  draped  in  the 
rosiest  hues. 

These  strangely  rapid  changes  aroused  deep  astonish- 
ment and  anxiety,  but  when  on  the  day  of  the  great 
procession  he  was  seen  mounted  on  a  magnificent  charg- 
er, wearing  his  glittering  uniform,  and  looking  the  typi- 
cal hero,  with  the  slight  shade  thrown  by  his  splendid 
helmet  emphasizing  the  brightness  of  his  finely  modelled 
face  and  the  gleam  of  his  blue  eyes,  a  murmur  of  exulta- 
tion ran  through  the  throng  of  Royalties  hemming  him 
in  on  all  sides,  and  the  gloomy  prophesies  of  the  un- 
natural son  were  commented  upon  with  a  candor  which 
did  not  exclude  ferocity. 

Ferocious  in  its  almost  freezing  disdain  was  also  the 
way  in  which  Prince  William  was  treated  in  England 
during  those  festive  days.  Over  and  over  again  he 
must  have  been  tempted  to  abandon  everything,  to 
go  straight  back  to  Berlin,  and  to  cut  himself,  once  and 
for  all,  adrift  from  all  the  horrors  of  his  father's  life,  as 
it  was  then;  but  pride,  duty,  and  that  "  je  ne  sais  quoi" 
which  make  up  strong  characters,  forbade  his  giving 
up,  and  calmly,  silently,  sombrely,  but  without  wincing, 
he  bore  the  direct  or  indirect  attacks  and  slights  to 
which  he  was  subjected,  his  cold,  contemptuous  appear- 
ance steadily  and  unfalteringly  covering  the  raging  fire 
within. 

That  expression  of  power,  that  dominant  poise,  that 
autocratic  glance  which  so  greatly  disturbed  and  an- 
gered those  who  did  not  know  what  steamed  and  flamed 
beneath,  were  of  course  brought  up  against  him  as  the 
culminating  point  of  his  many  sins. 

Ah,  fools!  blind,  foolish,  easily  cozened  humanity! 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

In  what  a  sea  of  illusions  we  mortals  love  to  flounder. 
What  a  singular  lack  of  continuity  and  concentration 
we  display  in  our  beliefs,  and  how  strangely  we  persist 
in  draping  the  grimmest  realities  with  our  own  paltry 
fancies  and  interpretations,  when  it  suits  us  to  do  so. 

Did  not  one  heart  in  that  splendid  crowd  beat  with 
pity  at  the  heroism  displayed  by  the  wretched  Crown 
Prince,  who  was  straining  every  nerve  of  his  body,  every 
fibre  of  his  soul,  to  maintain  the  farce  of  his  alleged 
healthfulness ;  who  was  fighting  with  all  the  furies  of 
physical  weakness,  of  ghastly  apprehension,  of  men- 
tal anguish  and  of  extreme  suffering  while  he  made  his 
big  war-horse  curvet  gracefully  beneath  him,  and  smiled 
the  cheerful,  pleasing  smile  of  a  man  strong  in  body 
and  in  mind,  who  looks  confidently  ahead  to  a  long 
succession  of  blissful  days  woven  with  silk  and  gold? 

What  an  endless  throng  of  painful  ideas,  good  inten- 
tions, broken  hopes,  wild,  fragmentary  ghosts  of  all  hues 
and  shapes,  filled  his  mind  as  his  charger  pranced  and 
tossed  its  lovely,  well-shaped  head  on  that  glorious  June 
day,  while  its  rider  gave  rein  to  his  imagination!  But 
gradually,  as  the  hours  wore  on,  his  face  became  gray  and 
tormented,  and  when  any  one  looked  at  him  he  turned 
away  his  eyes,  shunning  scrutiny,  as  if  he  suddenly  felt 
how  rapidly  the  card-house  erected  by  his  party  around 
him  was  tumbling  to  pieces. 

Poor  Crown  Prince  Frederick!  The  shapeless  mental 
ghosts  that  had  floated  around  him  on  that  never-to- 
be-forgotten  occasion  began  from  then  on  to  take  form, 
to  emerge  from  the  void  in  order  to  accompany  him 
throughout  his  subsequent  weary  and  miserable  wan- 
derings. They  swarmed  thickly  to  his  side  during  the 
three  months  he  spent  at  Norwood,  they  followed  him 
to  Scotland  and  to  the  lovely  shores  of  the  Isle  of  Wight. 
Aye!  they  did  not  give  him  a  minute's  respite  when  he 

138 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

tried  what  the  delightful  climate  of  Tyrol  could  do  for 
this  obstinate  "bad  cold  with  bronchial  complications," 
which  Sir  Morell  Mackenzie  was  so  ably  curing;  and  the 
ghostly  shapes — ghosts  no  longer,  but  horrible,  grimac- 
ing realities  now — settled  down  with  him  for  good  and 
all  in  the  winter  home  finally  selected  for  him  at  San 
Remo. 

The  green  silence  of  the  summer  flowed  away  from 
Northern  Europe,  and  with  it  the  Royal  patient  jour- 
neyed to  the  far-off  gardens  of  the  sun,  flying  from  the 
cold  and  the  snow,  and  from  the  sharp  sense  and  the 
sharp  knives  of  the  German  surgeons  he  had  been 
taught  to  dread;  far  from  hope,  too,  and  farther  yet 
from  the  last  chances  of  recovery. 

He  was  but  the  ghost  of  his  former  self  when  he 
reached  the  pretty  little  Italian  "health  resort" — what 
an  irony  in  that  denomination  —  which  amid  its  en- 
circling olive-covered  hills  is  so  merrily  bowered  in 
bouquets  of  gigantic  palms  and  millions  upon  millions 
of  flowers. 

The  beauty  of  this  place  was  perhaps  more  oppressive 
to  him  in  his  despairing  state  of  mind  than  had  it  pos- 
sessed less  color  and  less  fragrance;  the  teeming  life  of 
the  South  seemed  to  jeer  at  his  misery;  the  jumbled 
scenes  produced  by  ailing  men,  women,  and  children, 
who,  like  him,  had  come  to  winter  there;  by  the  chatter- 
ing, laughing,  singing,  vituperative  natives  in  their  gaudy 
costumes,  beguiling  in  shrill,  voluble  accents  the  visitors 
to  purchase  fruits  and  flowers,  or  to  take  a  donkey  ride, 
made  him  dizzy  and  confused,  and  symptoms  of  such 
gravity  manifested  themselves  at  once  that  Sir  Morell 
Mackenzie  was  summoned  post-haste  from  his  luxu- 
rious Harley  Street  mansion. 

San  Remo!  That  delicious,  pocket  -  paradise,  that 
garden  full  of  palms,  feathery  eucalyptus-trees,  oranges, 

10  139 


1MPERATOR    ET    REX 

lemons,  and  drooping  vines,  among  which  little  brown 
lizards,  immensely  Italian  in  their  beady-eyed  restless- 
ness, scurry  towards  the  golden  sands  of  the  eternally 
blue  Ligurian  Sea,  or  rustle  beneath  gorgeous  blooms, 
velvety  and  glowing  like  priceless  Oriental  stuffs! 
What  a  place  for  a  man  to  watch  life  ebb  slowly  away 
from  him! 

Sir  Morell,  as  I  have  already  said,  was  very  clever, 
shrewd,  too,  with  a  shrewdness  that  is  opposed  to  the 
blunter  virtues  of  the  simple  of  mind,  and  which  urges 
its  possessor  to  become  somewhat  regardless  of  conse- 
quences, to  trust  to  a  hitherto  triumphant  luck,  and  to 
disregard,  with  the  same  noble  sweep  of  decision,  vague 
intuitions  about  the  appalling  turn  which  things  may 
take  after  all,  even  when  great  celebrities  have  prophe- 
sied to  the  contrary. 

The  frantic  message  from  San  Remo  cannot  have  been 
precisely  to  him  a  bolt  from  the  blue,  and  yet  his  amaz- 
ing attitude  of  dolorous  surprise  when  he  arrived  with 
the  magical  promptness  secured  by  much  gold,  the  ex- 
pression of  bitter  resentment  towards  a  Providence 
which  for  once  had  forborne  to  uphold  his  dictates,  were 
masterpieces  of  achieved  perfection.  Trouble,  how- 
ever, did  not  whip  up  his  intellect,  and  his  well-known 
power  to  hearten  his  most  desponding  patients  did  not 
attain  on  that  occasion  quite  its  customary  efficiency, 
for  he  allowed  his  anxiety  to  leak  out,  and  the  one  enemy 
within  the  walls  communicated  promptly  with  Berlin. 

When  the  disastrous  news  reached  the  poor  old  Em- 
peror his  distress  was  pitiful  to  behold.  To  him  this 
turn  towards  the  worse  was  a  fearful  shock,  and  there 
was  nothing  assumed  or  theatrical  in  the  bitter  tears 
shed  by  those  weary  eyes. 

Prince  William,  who  was  with  him  at  the  time,  re- 
belled violently  at  being  requested  to  start  at  once  for 

140 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

San  Remo.  His  heart  was  hot  within  him,  for  the 
raging  fire  kindled  a  few  months  before  had  had  neither 
time  nor  occasion  to  die  down  in  this  short  interval.  He 
had  been  accused  of  exaggeration  even  by  those  who 
had  then  sided  with  him ;  was  he  now  to  go  in  person  and 
report  upon  the  accuracy  of  what  he  had  predicted  ? 

With  his  habitual  mental  swiftness  he  grasped  the  dif- 
ficulties of  his  position,  remembered  the  cruel  injustice 
displayed  towards  him  by  his  father's  party,  and  which 
still  jangled  about  him  like  chains.  He  realized  that  if 
once  more  he  set  his  foot  in  that  nest  of  ghastly  in- 
trigues, he  would  act  again  exactly  as  he  had  done  before, 
and  that  if  he  was  pushed  too  far,  much  would  happen 
which  he  would  like  to  avoid.  He  loathed  being  forced 
to  adopt  the  r61e  of  controller  as  much  as  he  recoiled 
at  that  of  consoler.  His  whole  nature  revolted  against 
it,  but  when  he  looked  at  the  weeping  old  man  who 
implored  him  to  go — to  go  at  once — something  stronger 
than  his  own  personal  feelings  and  distastes,  something 
stronger  even  than  his  indomitable  pride,  stepped  in, 
and  he  could  not  resist  it.  There  was  no  one  save 
himself  whom  the  Emperor  could  trust;  this  was  why 
he  could  not  fail  him,  and  so  he  yielded — under  the 
compulsion  most  impossible  of  all  to  withstand,  that 
of  a  being  weaker  than  one's  self — yielded  and  went. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  air  was  full  of  cold  dampness,  that  seemed  posi- 
tively charged  with  sorrow  and  anxiety,  when  the  Prince 
left  Berlin.  The  weather  had  been  very  dreary,  and 
now  rain  fell  steadily  and  dismally  from  a  low,  brooding 
sky  covered  with  leaden  clouds,  which  gave  one  the  im- 
pression of  anticipating  a  calamity,  and  as  he  steamed 
out  of  his  future  capital,  William  saw  a  landscape 
blurred  by  Heaven's  heavily  falling  tears,  while  upon 
the  glistening  panes  of  his  private  car  great  drops,  dis- 
colored by  the  soot  always  hanging  around  big  cities, 
glided  in  disfiguring  spots. 

It  takes  more  courage  sometimes  to  rise  above  the 
depressing  influences  of  such  villanous  atmospherical 
conditions  than  is  needed  to  face  the  cannons  of  a  battle- 
field, and  I  have  always  thought  that  this  sombre  de- 
parture, under  such  trying  circumstances,  and  so  simply 
accepted  in  the  way  of  duty,  was  to  be  counted  among 
William  II's.  most  praiseworthy  deeds;  but  even  the 
dire  and  dreary  bleakness  of  the  countries  he  first  trav- 
ersed was  less  depressing  than  the  wretched  wrangle, 
the  fevered  atmosphere,  and  the  infinite  miseries  which 
he  was  to  encounter  upon  his  arrival  in  San  Remo,  at 
the  pretty  Villa  Zirio. 

It  was  cruel  to  force  him  to  go  there,  and  he  knew 
it,  but  the  blow  was  dealt  by  the  feeble,  loving  hand  of 
a  very,  very  old  man,  unconscious  in  his  grief  and  mad- 
dening fears  of  the  true  state  of  affairs;  and  so  he,  who 
was  young  and  strong,  submitted  his  will,  suppressed 

142 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

his  increasing  horror,  and  travelled  as  swiftly  as  could 
be  achieved,  to  find,  as  he  had  feared,  the  mark  of  death 
stamped  ineradicably  upon  his  father's  face. 

Had  he  been  greeted  by  sorrowful  people,  who,  hav- 
ing lost  all  hope,  had  lost  also  all  arrogance,  he  might 
yet  have  relented;  but  Sir  Morell  had  by  now  recon- 
quered all  his  far-famed  "nerve,"  and  in  consequence, 
to  the  Prince's  boundless  indignation,  he  heard  the 
English  "entourage"  of  the  dying  man  still  talk  cheer- 
fully of  the  future,  and  declare  that  the  disease  was 
"not"  cancer,  while  in  his  own  reception  there  was 
more  than  a  hint  of  how  useless  and  ill-advised  his  pre- 
cipitation in  coming  had  been. 

The  German  doctors  in  attendance — more  for  form 
than  usefulness,  more  to  throw  a  sop  to  the  "Fatherland  " 
than  because  they  were  meant  to  be  consulted — almost 
wept  as  they  told  him  how  completely  they  had  been 
crowded  out,  and  how  absolutely  the  Prophet  from 
Harley  Street  had  ground  them  under  his  supercilious 
heel.  Prince  William  saw  for  himself  how  this  newly 
made  Knight — I  should  have  said  sooner  that  his  title 
was  conferred  upon  him  in  recognition  of  his  really 
magical  success  in  reviving  the  Crown  Prince  sufficiently 
to  admit  of  his  appearance  at  the  Jubilee,  but  custom 
is  a  law,  and  Dr.  Mackenzie  is  so  celebrated  as  "Sir 
Morell"  that  I  intentionally  used  this  higher-sounding 
appellation  from  the  first  —  confided  his  views  of  the 
case  to  every  journalist  happening  to  desire  them,  how 
he  tirelessly  charged  the  German  surgeons  with  having 
mishandled  and  aggravated  the  case,  and  how  well- 
founded  their  bitterness  was  towards  him,  and  he, 
Prince  William,  felt  as  if  he  was  positively  touching  the 
very  depth  of  human  cruelty  and  human  injustice. 

I  am  not  writing  a  novel,  nor  one  of  those  honeyed 
panegyrics  which  Sovereigns  are  accustomed  to  have 

143 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

grandiloquently  thrown  at  their  feet,  but  merely  the 
truth,  supported  by  many  written  and  printed  docu- 
ments, the  truth  that  has  been  hitherto  sadly  neglected 
regarding  Prince  William's  real  position  at  that  time, 
and  if,  therefore,  it  wounds  certain  sensibilities,  deplore 
it  as  I  may,  I  must  accept  the  consequence  thereof, 
conscious  only  of  the  necessity  of  opening  the  eyes  of 
the  English-speaking  peoples  to  a  great  and  unpardon- 
able wrong. 

The  civilized  world  has  clung  stubbornly  to  the  belief 
that  Prince  William  was  unfilial  and  cruel;  his  attitude 
towards  his  stricken  father  has  seemed  flatly  inexpli- 
cable, and  to-day  the  very  first  remark  which  follows 
any  praise  given  to  William  II.  is:  "Ah!  but  remember 
how  ill  he  behaved  towards  his  poor  dying  father!" 

The  time  has  therefore  arrived,  and  more  than  ar- 
rived, to  say  something  about  the  terrible  experiences 
which  he  was  called  upon  to  undergo,  the  conflicts  which 
tore  at  his  very  heart-strings,  and  in  order  to  relieve  the 
public  eye  of  so  persistent  a  leucoma,  sharp  and  sure 
instruments  are  requisite. 

True,  these  conflicts,  these  bitter  trials,  and  all  their 
attendant  sufferings  have  gone  to  the  making  of  the 
man  who  is  to-day  German  Emperor ;  it  was  his  baptism 
of  fire,  the  crisis  which  finally  placed  him  in  possession 
of  himself.  He  very  likely  did  not  analyze  all  this  then, 
perchance  even  now  he  is  too  active  and  too  over-bur- 
dened to  analyze  it  all,  but  as  the  athlete  at  the  end  of  a 
long  course  of  training  feels  the  strength  of  his  muscles, 
Prince  William,  when  he  ascended  the  Throne,  must 
have  mentally  realized  the  iron  thews  which  his  soul 
had  acquired  during  those  long  months  of  stress,  and 
must  almost  have  been  tempted  to  say  approvingly 
to  himself,  "This  is  I!" 

As  he  looked  at  his  father's  white,  weary  face  and 

144 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

hollow  eyes,  at  the  great  form  now  so  pitifully  languid 
and  emaciated,  lying  on  the  big  sofa  of  the  pretty 
drawing-room  at  the  Villa  Zirio,  anger  flowed  fiercely 
below  his  calm,  cold,  stern  exterior,  and  the  poor  sufferer, 
surrounded  by  flowers,  books,  music,  pretty  "bric-a- 
brac"  and  all  that  feminine  taste  and  feminine  care  could 
achieve  to  brighten  a  little  the  scene  of  his  miseries, 
gazed  longingly  and  vainly  at  him,  searching  for  a  flash 
of  sympathy  or  of  softness  upon  those  set,  inflexible 
features,  or  a  break  in  the  hard,  almost  harsh  voice. 
How  could  he  divine  that  the  breaking-point  was  well- 
nigh  reached,  that  this  "unfilial"  son,  for  fear  of  not 
being  able  to  recapture  himself,  should  he  ever  so 
slightly  give  rein  to  his  feelings,  was  reduced  to  the 
necessity  of  escaping  at  the  first  opportunity  from  the 
sick-room  and  the  presence  of  those  who  were  always 
posted  about  his  father,  so  that  he  should  have  no 
chance  of  speaking  to  him  alone. 

Of  course  only  those  who  knew  him  well  could  have 
guessed  that  there  were  pulses  beating  in  his  temples 
and  in  his  eyelids,  and  a  dull  thudding  against  his  side, 
which  might  at  any  minute  force  him  to  betray  his  over- 
whelming agitation.  But  those  who  knew  him  well  were 
apparently  extraordinarily  unobserving  just  then,  since 
the  legend  of  his  unfilial  behavior  was  allowed  to  ger- 
minate and  to  develop  with  the  phenomenal  vigor  and 
opulence  of  the  upas-tree. 

The  winter  of  1887-88  went  forward  on  its  course, 
the  bitter  wrangle,  the  boundless  rancor  and  recklessness 
of  mutual  accusation  between  the  two  more  and  more 
envenomed  camps,  went  forward  also,  and  the  public — 
thanks  to  the  cordon  of  newspaper  correspondents  con- 
stantly and  tirelessly  engirdling  the  Villa  Zirio — began 
to  take  part  in  the  contest  from  a  distance. 

Astounding  as  it  may  now  appear,  it  was  quite  usual 

145 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

to  read  in  the  newspapers,  one  day  that  the  German 
surgeons  were  trying  to  oust  the  British  medical  men 
in  order  to  murder  the  Crown  Prince  at  their  leisure, 
while  at  other  times  these  same  excellently  informed 
journals  insisted  upon  it  that  Mackenzie  was  deceiving 
the  German  public,  and  had  subjected  his  luckless  pa- 
tient to  the  most  ghastly  mutilations  in  order  to  con- 
ceal the  existence  of  the  cancer. 

The  basest  motives  were  ascribed  by  one  faction  to 
the  other  in  and  out  of  print;  the  public  jeered,  hooted, 
and  cursed,  vituperating  and  ridiculing  in  turn,  adopt- 
ing one  or  the  other  theory  as  inclination  dictated, 
and,  though  the  more  thoughtful  and  sensible  shrugged 
their  shoulders  at  such  wild  accusations,  during  all  this 
time  pandemonium  reigned  supreme  wherever  Crown 
Prince  Frederick's  deplorable  condition  and  situation 
were  mentioned. 

In  the  winter  of  that  year  there  was  very  bad  weather 
in  Northern  Europe;  snow,  sleet,  and  storm  delayed 
railway-trains,  and  transformed  even  the  fair  plains  of 
France  and  of  Southern  Germany  into  trackless  white 
stretches  resembling  the  Russian  Steppes. 

Several  times,  nevertheless,  Prince  William  made  the 
voyage  between  Berlin  and  San  Remo,  leaving  the 
former  city  behind  a  snorting,  hissing  engine  that  nois- 
ily flung  steam  and  fire  into  the  congealed  air,  moving 
with  a  jerking,  dragging  sound  over  the  frozen  snow 
across  the  bleak,  blank  face  of  the  land,  where  now  and 
again  a  clump  of  trees,  denuded  and  shivering,  showed 
black  against  an  uncompromisingly  steely  sky. 

"  Unfilial  son!"  Neither  wind  nor  weather,  drifting 
snow  wreaths  nor  sombre  skies,  deterred  him  from  going 
in  person  to  see  his  so  "sorely  neglected  father  ";  and  as 
month  followed  month,  it  became  apparent  that  sor- 
rowful sights  were  to  meet  him  at  both  ends  of  his  la- 

146 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

borious  journeys,  since  the  dear  old  Emperor's  long- 
protracted  life  was  swiftly  drawing  to  a  close. 

March  came,  obliterating  the  Northern  world  in  its 
shimmering  shroud  of  snow  and  ice.  The  church-towers 
and  square-shouldered  houses  of  Berlin  were  blurred 
and  blotted  by  dense  fogs,  which  resolved  themselves 
into  opaque  and  begrimed  icicles,  creaking  and  groaning 
on  every  roof,  and  in  the  great  Royal  palace  the  Great 
Emperor  lay  on  his  death-bed. 

In  attendance  upon  him  was  Prince  William,  to 
whom  he  spoke  now  as  if  he  were  his  immediate  heir,  for 
the  flight  of  his  last  illusions  concerning  his  son's  falla- 
cious hopes  had  preceded  but  by  a  few  days  his  own 
final  break-down. 

In  spite  of  all  that  he  had  lately  undergone,  the  young 
Prince  did  not  seem  physically  tired,  but  he  had  evident- 
ly lost  much  of  his  elasticity  of  movement,  his  eyes  had 
a  far-away,  strained  look  in  their  dark-blue  depths,  and 
he  had  grown  very  silent.  Almost  mutely  he  listened 
to  the  dying  old  man's  injunctions  of  State  and  inti- 
mate policy,  muttered  in  the  feeble  drone  of  a  being 
whose  brain-power  has  survived  his  strength. 

The  cold,  almost  aggressive  pride  which  had  en- 
veloped the  grandson  like  some  jointless  armor  at 
San  Remo,  had  given  way  to  boundless  tenderness  and 
deference;  he  was  evidently  enduring  now  in  its  full 
weight  the  double  load  of  regret  and  pain  which  the 
simultaneous  ebbing  away  of  these  two  lives — those  of 
father  and  grandfather — had  laid  upon  his  heart,  for 
his  smallest  action  betrayed  personal  feeling  of  a  very 
acute  kind.  Every  minute  of  those  grim  days  was  like 
a  knife  thrust  ruthlessly  into  his  sensitive  nerves,  and 
the  anticipation  of  the  shock  of  what  was  so  soon  to  take 
place  left  his  soul  more  numbed  than  all  the  mists  and 
the  snows  of  that  fearful  winter  could  have  left  his  body. 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

He  never  once  "gave  himself  away,"  however,  but 
buried  in  his  own  breast  all  the  impulses  and  emotions 
which  could  agitate  the  old  Emperor,  to  whom  he  gave 
no  sign  of  his  growing  anxiety,  save  by  an  unusual  soft- 
ness of  manner,  which,  indeed,  was  startling  in  this 
singularly  undemonstrative  man. 

From  his  wife  he  received  the  greatest  possible  as- 
sistance in  his  self-imposed  task  of  nurse,  for  she  was 
devotion  itself  in  attendance  upon  her  grandfather-in- 
law — watched  by  him  night  and  day,  and  surrounded 
him  with  that  exquisitely  gentle  atmosphere  that  seemed 
even  more  peculiarly  her  own,  now  that  pity,  sorrow, 
compassion,  regret,  and  many  other  tender  emotions 
moved  her. 

Physicians  came  and  went  continually,  but,  alas!  there 
was  nothing  to  be  done.  The  human  envelope  was 
worn  out,  its  delicate  and  intricate  mechanism  rebelled, 
grew  hourly  feebler,  and  must  at  any  moment  give  way 
altogether. 

Tears  constantly  welled  up  in  the  Emperor's  kindly 
old  eyes  at  the  thought  of  the  cruel  tragedy  still  being 
enacted  in  San  Remo. 

"  Poor  Fritz !  Poor  Fritz !"  was  the  eternal,  low  refrain 
he  mumbled  as  if  he  could  see  his  dear  son  writhing  in 
his  agony;  then,  from  time  to  time,  the  mind  wandered 
a  little,  and  disconnected  sentences  about  his  boy's 
goodness  and  virtues  and  attainments  were  repeated 
over  and  over  again.  Sometimes,  also,  he  would  raise 
himself  in  bed,  with  the  help  of  William's  arm,  and 
counsel  him  about  affairs  of  State  in  a  clear,  lucid  fash- 
ion, which  was  astonishing,  considering  the  age,  weak- 
ness, and  sufferings  of  this  heroic  patient. 

At  last  the  end  came,  the  Emperor's  thin,  trem- 
bling hands  moved  feebly  in  benediction  above  his  be- 
loved grandson's  bowed  head,  and  then  very  quietly, 

148 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

like  an  angel  that  takes  wing,  his  chivalrous  soul  left 
him. 

When  Prince  William  closed  his  grandfather's  eyes  a 
great  weight  of  unending  grief  sank  upon  his  life.  He 
was  the  more  unhappy  because  this  good  and  just  old 
man  had  been  wellnigh  his  only  friend,  and  he  knew 
that  anger  and  offence  were  awaiting  him  outside  that 
peaceful  death  -  chamber.  Misunderstandings  born  of 
doubt,  temper,  and  suspicion  had  marred  most  of  his 
young  life;  continually  he  had  been  accused  of  being 
too  arrogant,  too  harsh,  too  confident  in  himself,  and 
though  he  knew  that  he  had  always  been  perfectly  sin- 
cere and  that  the  popular  conception  of  his  character 
and  of  his  motives  was  wholly  wrong,  utterly  mistaken, 
that  his  truth  and  his  loyalty  had  been  above  blame, 
yet  fine  temperaments  like  his  are  always  cruelly  open 
to  self-reproach,  and  he  determined  to  exercise  more 
patience,  more  forbearance,  more  indulgence,  and  more 
submissiveness  in  that  near  future  which  loomed 
so  darkly  and  threateningly  over  him.  Indeed,  had 
there  been  less  intolerance  and  antagonism  displayed 
towards  him  then,  it  is  certain  that  much  which  hap- 
pened ultimately  could  have  been  avoided,  or  at  least 
softened.  But,  alas!  fate  decided  differently,  and  Prince 
William  was  made  as  unhappy  as  it  is  possible  for  a 
man  to  be  who  has  no  crime  on  his  conscience,  and  has 
all  his  personal  wants  richly  supplied. 

William  the  Great  died  on  March  9,  1888,  and  on 
March  nth  Frederick  arrived  at  Berlin  in  a  special 
train,  that  had  accomplished  the  swiftest  trip  on  record 
in  spite  of  the  ghastly  assaults  of  a  regular  "tourmente" 
encountered  like  some  ill-omened  and  supreme  "de- 
traquement"  of  the  elements,  on  the  very  threshold  of 
his  Empire. 

When  the  new  Emperor  alighted  from  his  saloon- 

149 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

carriage,  there  was  nothing  triumphant  in  his  bear- 
ing. 

"Poor  Fritz!  Poor  Fritz!"  his  father  had  murmured, 
when  dying,  and  this  expression  of  deep,  desolate  pity 
was  justified  indeed  by  one  glance  at  the  pallid  features 
and  almost  tottering  form  of  that  wretched  and  su- 
premely miserable  man,  who  gave  the  impression  of 
an  unhappy  being  led  to  execution,  far  rather  than  of 
a  Prince  about  to  ascend  the  gilded  steps  of  a  Throne. 

His  party,  on  the  other  hand,  offered  a  glaring  con- 
trast to  their  unfortunate  leader,  whose  evident  state 
of  trepidation,  anxiety,  and  pained  bewilderment  robbed 
him  of  all  sense  or  even  appearance  of  a  leadership  he 
had  in  reality  never  exercised.  They — his  party — re- 
joiced openly.  Was  not  Frederick,  Emperor — had  he 
not  won  that  terrible  handicap  with  death,  in  spite  of 
the  extraordinary  weight  of  lead  laid  upon  him  by  a 
malady  which  knows  no  relenting?  Their  faces  were 
not  gloomy  or  pale  on  that  freezing  March  evening, 
bleak  and  desolate.  They  had  a  vague  resemblance  to 
a  flock  of  rooks  settling  down  on  a  field  newly  ploughed 
and  rich  in  fattening  food,  and  all  with  equal  and  un- 
ceremonious readiness  affected  to  ignore  Prince  William 
— as  much,  of  course,  as  etiquette  allowed. 

The  Prince  was  very  calm,  very  white,  very  still;  the 
warmer  current  which  had  sprung  up  in  his  heart,  softened 
by  his  grandfather's  death,  was  once  more  congealed  to 
harder  ice  by  their  indecently  exultant  attitude. 

The  fact  that  he,  too,  had  risen  in  rank  and  status, 
that  he  was  now  Crown  Prince,  was  also  ignored  like 
some  trifling  incident  that  can  be  attended  to  at  leisure, 
or,  if  possible,  altogether  disregarded.  In  school-boy 
language,  it  looked  as  if  the  general  opinion  was  that 
this  sullen  youth  needed  being  "taken  down  a  peg  or 
two" — to  be  sure,  Prince  William  was  not  a  person 

150 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

whom  it  would  be  easy  to  take  down  either  one  peg  or 
many,  but  that  for  the  present  did  not  matter. 

It  is  curious  what  "parti-pris"  and  rancor  will  work 
even  in  people  possessed  of  much  natural  intelligence, 
strength,  and  talent,  who  can  on  occasion  be  good- 
natured,  and  yet  who  choose  to  show  themselves  hor- 
ribly cruel  when  they  fancy,  at  the  turning  of  a  card, 
that  they  have  won  the  day! 

Wounded  pride  and  mute  disgust  made  the  energetic 
face  of  the  new  Crown  Prince  look  extraordinarily  grim, 
it  is  true.  He  knew  now  that  gentleness  would  not  an- 
swer, and  the  slight  frown  which  never  faded  from  his 
brows  was  a  covert  rebuke,  which  could  not  be  quite 
overlooked;  indeed,  his  antagonists  did  not  at  all  like 
the  steady,  contemptuous  gaze  of  those  stern,  tranquil 
eyes,  that,  as  day  followed  day,  became  more  and  more 
disconcerting  to  them. 

So  cold,  so  grave,  so  visibly  disapproving,  this  Crown 
Prince  was  really  insufferable  to  them,  and  but  for  the 
very  real  fear  which  he  was  beginning  to  awaken  in 
their  breasts  they  would  have  expressed  to  him  their 
feelings  in  unequivocal  terms.  The  persistent  silence 
he  kept  was  disquieting,  too;  they  did  not  divine  that 
he  held  his  lips  so  obstinately  shut  because  he  feared 
every  moment  that  some  stinging  and  irreparable  word 
would  escape  him,  because,  also,  he  had  now  grown 
accustomed  to  resent  helplessly,  censure  mutely,  despise 
unavailingly,  and  suffer  secretly. 

The  plans,  political  and  otherwise,  that  were  buzzed 
in  his  ears  continually,  sounded  to  him  like  some  de- 
risive, empty  mockery  of  his  father's  pitiable  condition 
—that  wretched  man  whose  nerves  winced,  whose  heart 
ached,  whose  body  felt  such  excruciating  pain,  and  whose 
fond  soul  was  starving  for  the  word  of  love  that  he,  his 
own  son,  could  not  by  any  effort  summon  to  his  lips. 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

The  on-lookers,  in  their  ignorance  of  the  manifold 
wheels  within  wheels,  which  make  up  a  temperament 
and  character  like  those  of  Prince  William,  became 
more  and  more  convinced  that  he  was  showing  a  really 
indecent  lack  of  feeling ;  those  who  affected  to  be  inform- 
ed of  what  took  place  during  the  protracted  confer- 
ences between  Emperor  Frederick,  his  son,  and  Prince 
Bismarck  at  that  Schloss  of  Charlottenburg,  which  had 
been  so  hastily  prepared  for  the  reception  of  the  invalid, 
waxed  eloquent  in  their  denunciations  of  his  (William's) 
callous  and  shameless  haste  to  snatch  the  reins  of 
power  from  his  father's  shaking  hands.  Others,  coming 
straight  from  the  new  Emperor's  sick-room,  actually 
alleged  that  the  new  Crown  Prince  was  demanding  the 
immediate  establishment  of  a  Regency — unsupported, 
unproved,  foolish  statements  that  should,  like  some  ab- 
ject, anonymous  letter,  have  been  consigned  to  the  flames 
of  oblivion,  but  which  the  world  in  its  kindly  charity 
picked  up  and  magnified  and  set  up  on  high  "  poteaux 
indicateurs"  so  that  they  could  be  read  and  assimilated 
by  all  passers-by. 

Bismarck  had  pledged  himself  by  a  solemn  promise 
to  the  dying  Emperor  William  I.  to  remain  in  office 
"upon  any  and  all  terms  short  of  peremptory  dismissal," 
throughout  the  necessarily  brief  reign  of  Emperor  Fred- 
erick; and  this  man  of  iron  was  a  terrible  thorn  in  the 
side  of  the  "Friedrichers,"  but  it  was  quite  impossible 
to  attempt  getting  rid  of  this  stiff,  intensely  disagree- 
able, and  pre-eminently  virtuous  statesman,  who,  when 
he  said  a  thing,  meant  it  literally,  and  who,  when  he  de- 
cided that  a  thing  had  to  be  done,  managed  almost  al- 
ways to  carry  through  his  project. 

No,  there  were  many  thorns  in  the  roses  and  laurels 
snatched  from  the  grave  by  Emperor  Frederick's  party! 
To  be  sure,  Prince  Bismarck  had  a  hard  time  of  it  just 

152 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

then  himself,  and  even  his  unequalled  coolness  and 
shrewd  "savoir-faire"  were  often  shaken  with  disqui- 
etude; but  the  history  of  those  pitiful  ninety-nine  days 
during  which  a  man  suffering  a  hundred  varieties  of 
agonizing  torture  in  every  hour  of  the  twenty-four  sat 
on  the  German  Throne,  need  not  detain  us  long,  for 
they  would  only  read  like  an  exaggerated  nightmare. 

The  stolid  self-assurance  and  self -admiration  of  the 
"  Friedrichers "  was,  nevertheless,  beginning  to  melt 
before  the  grewsome  and  rapid  approach  of  death;  they 
were  commencing — some  of  them,  at  least — to  be  in- 
tensely frightened,  as  if  they  dreaded  to  be  soon  trans- 
fixed by  some  of  the  barbed  arrows  they  themselves 
had  thrown  with  so  much  "doigte."  The  unfortunate 
Emperor  could  not  be  expected  to  live  much  longer, 
and  now  looked  forward  to  death  as  a  deliverance  from 
infinite  torture.  The  knife,  applied  too  late,  had  robbed 
him  of  his  voice,  of  his  power  of  swallowing,  almost  of 
that  of  breathing;  every  gasping  effort  to  obtain  air 
covered  his  livid  face  with  the  clammy  beads  of  an  icy 
perspiration,  and  caused  a  little,  hacking,  funereal  cough 
which  very  dangerously  tried  the  slender  amount  of  vi- 
tality he  still  possessed. 

It  was,  however,  terrible  to  die,  terrible,  just  when 
he  had  attained  the  aim  of  his  whole  life,  and  could 
at  last  do  what  he  liked,  and  in  spite  of  the  release 
from  pain,  which  he  anticipated  so  longingly,  sad  and 
useless  regrets  still  bore  him  untiring  company. 

At  night  he  would  lie  with  closed  eyes  and  to  all  out- 
ward semblance  unconscious  and  indifferent  to  all 
worldly  things,  his  worn-out  strength  barely  sufficient 
to  draw  out  from  his  mutilated  throat  a  few  desperate 
breaths,  his  once  handsome  face  looking  ghastly  in  its 
waxen  emaciation,  his  tall  form  very  straight,  very  like 
an  effigy  carven  in  stone,  save  for  the  pitiful  heaving  of 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

the  chest  beneath  the  mere  sheet  covering  it,  during 
these  first  hot  nights  of  the  late  spring. 

Unconscious  of  all  worldly  things  he  may  have  been  in 
appearance,  but  those  who  watched  through  the  long,  dark 
hours,  knew  well  that  the  poor  sufferer's  profound  de- 
pression and  muteness  were  not  due  to  any  unconscious- 
ness of  what  was  taking  place  around  him,  that  the  bit- 
ter mockery  of  his  vain  efforts  to  be  a  King  at  last — 
at  last — was  present  every  second  to  his  mind,  and  lay 
like  an  iron  band  around  his  heart. 

To  have  hoped  so  long  for  so  much,  and  to  find  this! 
What  an  abominable  irony! 

During  the  day  he  forced  himself  to  give  all  his  at- 
tention to  his  duties  as  a  Ruler;  he  received  in  audience 
all  his  Ministers,  and  that  with  a  regularity  and  a  punc- 
tiliousness which  aroused  the  admiration  and  wonder 
of  everybody;  signed  State  papers  and  documents  un- 
murmuringly,  and  attended  scrupulously  to  the  routine 
work  of  his  lofty  office ;  but  he  felt  with  cruel  distinctness 
that  it  was  too  late  now  for  him  to  give  a  thought  to 
all  the  reforms  he  had  planned,  and  during  his  short 
reign  he,  indeed,  accomplished  but  one,  namely,  the  expul- 
sion of  von  Puttkamer  from  the  Ministry  of  the  Interior. 
This  was  a  triumph  for  the  "  Friedrickers"  over  Bis- 
marck, for  von  Puttkamer  had  been  in  office  since  1881, 
and  was  a  loyal  Bismarckian  and  the  terror  of  Prussian 
Liberalism.  The  Minister  himself  had  known  that  he 
was  doomed  from  the  moment  when  Frederick  had 
inherited  the  Crown,  since  he  had  never  made  a  secret 
of  the  fact  that  in  his  opinion  the  reign  of  this  new 
Emperor  would  prove  the  political  ruin  of  Germany, 
and  in  his  ministerial  oration  announcing  William  the 
Great's  death  he  had  pointedly  avoided  mentioning  his 
successor's  name. 

On  the  evening  of  this  defeat  Bismarck  gave  a  splen- 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

did  dinner  in  the  fallen  Minister's  honor,  a  rather  use- 
less and  cruel  affront  to  Frederick,  since  the  latter,  who, 
in  the  first  days  of  June,  had  been  conveyed  by  boat 
to  Potsdam,  wishing  to  die  in  his  dear  " Neues  Palais ," 
was  now  so  far  gone  that  he  could  no  longer  eat,  and  was 
not  informed  of  banquets  given  either  with  a  view  of 
pleasing  or  of  displeasing  him. 

"Poor  Fritz!  poor  Fritz!"  Well  might  the  dying  fa- 
ther have  said  this  of  the  dying  son,  poor  and  miserable 
and  wretched  beyond  the  power  of  any  pen  to  describe, 
with  his  bluish  lips  moving  in  a  vain  effort  to  speak, 
and  his  shaking  fingers  continually  busy  with  the  little 
squares  of  paper  upon  which  he  pencilled  his  ever-rest- 
less thoughts,  knowing,  as  he  did,  that  he  had  not  much 
time  left,  and  unwilling  to  go  away  without  making  his 
meaning  clear. 

The  idea  of  death,  which  he  fancied  a  welcome  one, 
had  during  those  last  days  suddenly  become  frightful 
to  him;  his  whole  being  struggled  against  it.  He  saw 
himself  lying  in  state,  clad  in  his  full  Regalia,  for  the 
multitude  to  stare  at;  almost  did  he  smell  the  scent  of 
exotics  and  of  burning  wax  peculiar  to  such  occasions, 
and  he  wondered  how  the  pulses  of  his  heart  could  go  on 
beating,  with  so  grewsome  an  expectation  to  hasten  it 
towards  the  end.  In  a  few  hours,  most  likely,  people 
would  be  hurrying  to  and  fro  to  prepare  his  remains  for 
that  supreme  pageant — the  last  in  which  he  would  take 
part! 

"One  does  not  feel  when  one  is  dead."  He  must 
have  kept  on  repeating  this  to  himself  mechanically,  for 
mechanically  he  wrote  it  again  and  again  on  the  little 
paper  squares  which,  like  great  Acherontia  moths,  flut- 
tered in  the  summer  breeze  blowing  through  the  wide- 
open  windows  of  his  room,  when  the  breathless  Emperor 
gave  himself  up  to  those  terrible  visions  which  broke 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

upon  him  and  faded  away  again  like  the  whirring  gyra- 
tions of  a  zoetrope. 

The  glory  of  the  June  sun  had  become  intolerable  to 
him,  and  carefully  were  the  blinds  pulled  down  to  ex- 
clude the  glow  of  the  superb  blue  sky,  the  breath  of 
the  millions  of  flowers  blossoming  in  the  palace  gar- 
dens, and  the  amorous  twitter  of  the  birds  flitting 
amid  the  newly  unfolded  leafage  of  the  brilliantly  green 
trees. 

At  night,  when  the  stars  peeped  forth  from  the  dark- 
ened vault — which  seemed  to  him  now  unusually  near 
to  the  earth — he  lay  gazing  at  them  between  his  fits  of 
suffocation;  his  dying  hopes,  wonders,  resolves,  plans, 
and  longings,  stealing  forth  from  the  silvery  twilight  of 
the  rising  moon  in  a  silent  but  complete  procession  of 
hooded  phantoms,  pitilessly  obsessing  him  with  the  by- 
gone fragrance  of  the  dreams  that  had  drifted  away  in 
the  buffeting  of  Fate's  cruel  storm. 

The  voice  of  a  bugle  ringing  out  from  the  nearest 
barracks  often  resurrected  for  him  his  brilliant  military 
past;  great  events  thronged  round  him  whispering  of 
long-forgotten  incidents,  of  the  battle-fields  of  France, 
where  the  wounded  and  dead  of  both  armies  had  lain 
heaped  up  in  the  blood-bespattered  snow,  of  the  tri- 
umphant re-entry  into  Berlin,  to  the  sound  of  a  music 
which  Frederick  heard  now  as  if  from  another  world, 
and  with  it  all  the  echo  of  many  passions  and  many 
sorrows  flowing  to  some  distant  ocean  of  silent  waves 
and  impalpable  foam. 

He  knew  the  measure  of  his  impotence  now!  Ah, 
yes,  he  knew  it  only  too  well,  when  thus  the  graves  in 
his  heart  gave  up  their  dead. 

He  had  striven  and  failed  utterly.  His  defeat  reared 
itself  up  before  him  like  a  monster  in  the  night,  for  never 
could  he  strive  again  or  fight  again  like  a  man.  Nor 

156 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

could  he  make  a  friend  of  his  pain,  and  use  it  as  a  spur  to 
urge  him  to  new  effort,  since  the  end  of  all  things  earth- 
ly had  come  for  him.  But  death,  perhaps,  would  tell 
him  everything,  would  explain — as  we  are  told  to  hope 
—why  such  agonies  are  permitted  by  One  all  merciful 
to  His  creatures,  would  tell  him  the  secret  of  life,  what 
it  meant  and  to  what  it  led. 

The  one  comfort  which  this  sorely  stricken  man  found 
during  these  last  days  and  nights  of  torture  was  the 
constant  presence  beside  him  of  his  daughter-in-law, 
whose  great  and  delicate  tenderness  was  like  a  balm  to 
his  wounded  spirit.  Princess  Augusta-Victoria  was  to 
him  then  a  daughter  in  the  full  acceptance  of  the  term, 
a  strong,  reliant  helper,  a  devoted  and  indefatigable 
nurse,  with  a  singularly  human  and  sympathetic  gleam 
in  the  azure  of  her  gentle  eyes,  and  he  had  never  real- 
ized so  well  as  then  how  precious  simple  and  natural 
goodness  is  in  a  woman. 

She  had  had  to  face  much  already,  this  young  mother 
who  now  so  constantly  bent  over  him,  and  how  brave, 
self-sacrificing,  forgiving,  nay,  even  utterly  forgetful  of 
injustice  and  offence,  did  she  prove  herself  to  be!  She 
spoke  ever  in  a  low,  harmonious,  soothing  voice,  which 
lulled  the  excitement  of  the  twitching,  nightmare-rid- 
den patient  in  his  worst  hours  of  suffering,  when,  crazed 
almost  and  haggard,  he  panted  despairingly  for  the 
breath  which  was  drawn-in  horribly  with  a  sort  of  sob 
through  his  lacerated  throat,  and  when  beating  his 
arms  in  the  air  as  if  clutching  at  some  support,  he 
found  it  in  the  cool,  firm,  caressing  clasp  of  her  hands. 
When  the  flush  of  fever  appeared  on  the  livid  gray  of 
his  cheeks,  when  he  tossed  on  his  pillows  as  if  they 
were  filled  with  live  coals,  a  passion  of  pity  would  keep 
her  on  her  knees  beside  him  murmuring  words  of  en- 
couragement, which  hushed  his  piteously  stifled  groans; 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

untiring,  always  ready  to  cheer  and  to  protect,  ever 
calm  and  consoling,  as  if  her  force  of  endurance  had  no 
limit,  while  every  one  else  about  was  dazed  and  helpless. 
Truly,  she  alone  had  the  secret  to  comfort  and  soothe 
him,  be  strong  for  him  and  help  him ;  she  alone  seemed 
able  to  patiently  endure  the  strain  of  waiting  near  him 
for  the  fast-approaching  end  of  so  much  wretchedness, 
for  his  last  summons  upon  earth. 

The  morning  of  June  15,  1888,  rose  with  heavy 
summer  rain.  The  sky  was  a  lowering  arch  of  deluge, 
littered  with  clouds  ragged  and  fringed  as  if  torn  from 
some  immense  pall.  The  breeze  that  had  blown  dur- 
ing the  night  and  refreshed  the  sick-room  had  dropped 
like  a  broken  wing,  and  the  light  was  dull  and  gray  in 
color,  blotting  out  the  whole  landscape  and  the  stag- 
nant shapes  of  the  dripping  trees. 

The  Imperial  patient  was  sinking  fast;  he  lay  with 
closed  eyes,  and  a  whistling  intake  of  breath,  awful  to 
hear,  shook  the  very  curtains  of  his  bed.  From  time 
to  time,  when  there  was  a  few  minutes'  respite  in  his 
sufferings,  he  would  open  those  glazing  orbs  and  ap- 
parently take  a  shuddering  notice  of  the  steady  tattoo 
of  the  rain  on  the  palace  roofs,  as  if  he  realized  that 
even  nature  was  weeping  for  him,  but  next  moment  a 
new  pang  would  make  him  quiver  with  the  old  restless- 
ness of  helpless  agony. 

Outside,  in  spite  of  the  weather,  many  people  had 
gathered.  The  news  that  within  a  few  hours,  for  the 
second  time  in  three  months,  Prussia  was  to  be  robbed 
of  a  King,  had  rushed  like  wild-fire  through  Potsdam, 
and  in  awed  and  terrified  silence  men  and  women  stood 
in  the  splashing  gravel  and  mud,  gazing  with  frightened 
eyes  at  Frederick's  well-known  windows. 

The  morning  went  monotonously  on  its  weary  way, 
all  traffic  was  at  a  stand-still,  and  barely  did  any  of 

158 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

those  watching  and  waiting  take  time  to  swallow  a  few 
hurried  mouthfuls  at  noon. 

It  was  late  in  the  afternoon  of  that  dismal  summer 
day  when  the  black-and-white  Royal  Standard  above 
the  palace  slowly  glided  downward,  announcing  to 
the  drenched  multitude  that  their  King,  eighth  of  his 
line  and  second  German  Emperor,  was  dead. 

A  hoarse  murmur  rumbled  through  the  crowd  like 
the  sudden  roll  of  a  crape-muffled  drum,  a  murmur 
which  partook  of  the  nature  of  a  groan  or  a  magnified 
gasp,  but  which  died  away  abruptly — killed  by  over- 
whelming astonishment — when  suddenly  orderlies  were 
seen  running  hither  and  thither,  and  troops  hastily  de- 
ployed on  all  sides  to  form  an  impassable  cordon  of 
gleaming  bayonets  between  the  palace  and  all  the  rest 
of  the  world. 

********* 
********* 

In  an  inner  room  of  the  great  building — a  room  which 
had  merely  a  view  of  the  gardens,  and  where  deep,  al- 
most complete  silence  reigned,  he  who  but  a  moment 
before  had  been  Crown  Prince  William  was  walking 
slowly  up  and  down.  His  manner  was  that  of  a  man 
who  has  fully  realized  the  gravity  of  his  situation,  and 
yet  he  was  neither  flustered  nor  in  any  way  excited.  It 
had  been  glaringly  apparent  to  him  for  some  weeks  past, 
that  the  death  of  his  father  would  be  in  more  ways  than 
one  a  dangerous  crisis  for  Germany  and  for  himself. 
The  position  was  not  a  pleasant  one.  For  three  months 
he  had  been  surrounded  by  hostile  people,  and  now 
there  seemed  to  be  no  hope  of  his  assuming  control 
without  some  display  of  mastery,  which  again  would 
pass  for  cruelty  and  lack  of  feeling. 

His  prompt  action  in  cutting  all  communication  be- 
tween the  palace  and  the  town  had  therefore  been  not 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

the  result  of  impulse,  but  the  deliberate  execution  of  a 
previous  decision. 

William  II.,  by  the  Grace  of  God  King  of  Prussia,  by 
that  of  his  army  German  Emperor,  possessing  fifty -four 
nobiliary  titles,  and,  in  spite  of  all  possible  Constitutions, 
an  almost  intact  omnipotence,  was  now  a  man  to  reckon 
with,  educated  and  informed  to  his  very  finger-tips, 
deeply  read,  immensely  clever,  a  perfectly  finished 
"beau-ideal"  at  once  of  nineteenth-century  up-to-date- 
ness and  of  mediaeval  energy,  valor,  and  strength;  a 
man  who  would  invariably  know  what  to  do,  and 
would  do  it  better  than  his  compeers — upright,  physi- 
cally and  morally  trim  and  perfectly  determined. 

To  all  men  comes  sooner  or  later  the  moment  wherein 
their  lives  are  suddenly  thrust  into  their  own  hands  to 
shape  or  to  spoil,  to  make  or  to  mar;  this  man,  at  least, 
would  neither  spoil  nor  mar  his;  his  initiative  was  not 
overshadowed  by  that  of  Bismarck  or  of  any  one  else;  he 
was  thoroughly  genuine,  thoroughly  original,  thorough- 
ly himself  in  spite  of  all  that  may  have  been  said  to  the 
contrary.  Behind  his  cold,  sometimes  sneeringly  as- 
sumed indifference  there  had  always  lurked  a  steady 
energy,  a  perfect  self-command,  and  that  odd  and  rare 
mixture  of  self-confidence  and  diffidence  which  is  sure 
to  attain  success  in  the  world.  Moreover,  he  was  ex- 
traordinarily ambitious  for  his  country,  which  is  the 
finest  and  noblest  ambition  a  man  may  harbor,  and 
that  is  just  why  his  first  proclamations  were  addressed 
to  his  army  and  his  navy.  But  of  this  more  anon. 

A  hurricane  of  denunciation  greeted  the  young  Em- 
peror's action  in  surrounding  with  troops  the  palace, 
where  the  body  of  his  father  had  not  had  time  as 
yet  to  grow  cold.  That  was  to  be  anticipated,  for  so 
lofty  a  wall  of  misapprehension  as  that  then  surround- 
ing Germany's  new  Monarch  could  not  be  expected  to 

160 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

fall  in  ruins  at  the  mere  blast  of  the  trumpet  pro- 
claiming him  Imperator  et  Rex.  Yet,  was  this  action 
unnecessary?  Could  it  have  been  avoided?  No,  a 
million  times  no,  as  it  is  easy  to  show,  and  will  be 
shown  immediately;  but  its  far-reaching  results  only 
go  to  prove  how  some  comparatively  unimportant 
move  may  at  certain  moments — like  the  tiny  piece  of 
snow-crust  falling  on  the  mountain-side — bring  about  an 
avalanche  of  misconception. 

During  Frederick's  short  reign  the  Liberal  party  had 
been  temporarily  brought  to  the  front,  and  to  their 
swollen  ' '  amour-propre ' '  and  gigantic  expectations  noth- 
ing seemed  impossible. 

The  death  of  the  Emperor  called  a  brutal  halt  to 
their  machinations,  although  they  had  known  from  the 
first,  "a  n'en  pouvoir  douter,"  that  their  supremacy  was 
doomed  to  be  of  singularly  short  duration,  and  had  im- 
prudently vowed  aloud  to  avenge  the  slights  and  re- 
buffs from  which  they  had  suffered  in  the  past,  should 
these  slights  and  rebuffs  be  repeated  under  the  new 
regime. 

It  was  unfortunate  for  them  that  they  should  have 
lost  the  man  they  were  pleased  to  call  their  leader,  in 
so  tragic  a  way,  but  their  keen  wits  saw  a  means  of  re- 
venge against  his  successor  which  partly  consoled  them 
for  this  disaster — namely,  an  opportunity  to  obtain  and 
publish  a  portion  of  the  chatty  and  very  circumstantial 
diary  which  Frederick  had,  during  the  last  thirty  years 
or  so,  faithfully  but  imprudently  kept,  and  which  was 
studded  with  State  and  Family  secrets. 

These  compact  little  volumes  were  written  in  the  pes- 
simistic tone  that  strangely  enough  seemed  to  pervade 
the  unfortunate  Prince's  entire  life,  and  it  was  hoped 
that  in  the  confusion  resulting  from  the  death  of  the 
Sovereign  they  could  be  smuggled  out  of  the  country. 

161 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

William  II.  knew  this,  and  knew  also  that  there  were 
some  among  his  dead  father's  party  who  would  scruple 
at  nothing  to  pay  off  old  scores  and  to  strengthen  the 
tottering  Liberal  faction;  moreover,  some  of  his  father's 
papers  had  already  been  removed  from  the  palace  in 
the  days  preceding  the  latter's  death,  and  in  order  to 
avoid  an  impending  scandal,  he  simply  put  it  out  of 
anybody's  power  to  carry  further,  depredations  which 
would  be  followed  by  such  serious  consequences. 

To  a  man  as  masculine  in  his  thoughts  as  the  young 
Emperor,  the  dramatic  effect  which  was  always  ascribed 
to  him  as  of  primordial  importance  did  not  even  occur 
when  he  ordered  the  momentary  isolation  of  the  pal- 
ace. He  wanted  to  prevent  his  reign  being  inaugu- 
rated by  so  grave  a  disaster,  and  he  employed  to  ac- 
complish this  aim  the  means  easiest  and  nearest  at 
hand — nothing  more — without  giving  a  thought  to  the 
varied  and  unintelligent  interpretations  of  a  world  ever 
greedy  for  something  to  slaver  upon. 

Nor  was  he  even  then  completely  ahead  of  his  op- 
ponents, for  on  the  i2th  of  the  following  March  the 
"Deutsche  Rundschau"  actually  published  an  extract 
from  the  famous  diary,  which  brought  both  to  the  Em- 
peror and  to  his  Chancellor  a  great  deal  of  vexation  and 
trouble,  although  the  number  of  the  paper  in  which  it 
appeared  was  at  once  confiscated,  and  the  man  respon- 
sible for  its  publication  promptly  arrested. 

Emperor  William,  from  the  beginning  of  his  reign, 
acted  with  the  easy  independence  of  the  man  born  to 
rule,  not  heeding  what  opinion  he  might  evoke,  what 
criticism  he  might  have  to  brave.  Resignation  and 
prudence  under  such  circumstances  would  have  been 
the  most  reprehensible  of  virtues. 

The  man  is  proved  by  the  hour! 

Before  concluding  this  chapter,  and  while  in  the  ex- 

162 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

planatory  strain,  it  may  be  as  well  to  elucidate  anotln 
point  which  seems  to  have  been  excessively  vexatious 
to  the  Anglo-Saxon  public. 

Why  was  one  of  William's  first  acts  to  order  the  disuse 
of  the  name  of  ' '  Friedrichskron "  conferred  upon  the 
" Neues -Palais"  by  the  " Friedrichers "  a  fortnight  be- 
fore Frederick's  death  ?  The  young  Emperor  was  taxed 
openly,  when  this  became  known,  with  having  "gratui- 
tously entered  upon  a  course  of  demonstrative  disrespect 
towards  his  father's  memory.1'' 

This  is  one  of  the  occasions  when  the  world  at  large 
made  distinctly  a  fool  of  itself.  Now  the  world  should 
not  make  a  fool  of  itself  "en  masse."  It  is  not  seemly, 
and  such  a  course  of  conduct  includes  the  risk — never  an 
agreeable  one  to  take — of  exciting  hearty  laughter  in 
those  who  know. 

History,  dry  and  musty  though  it  be,  hath  one  ex- 
cellent purpose — that  to  enlighten  ignorance  about  the 
sometimes  obscure  causes  of  many  a  deed  which  "a 
prima-vista"  seems  incomprehensible.  Let  us,  there- 
fore, dig  into  the  yellowing  pages  recording  the  Seven 
Years'  War,  or,  rather,  those  immediately  following  it,  and 
we  will  find  the  why  and  the  wherefore  of  William's  edict. 

The  building  of  the  "Neues  Palais" — new  to-day  but 
in  name — was  begun  by  Frederick  the  Great — who  might 
well  also  have  been  called  the  "  Tireless  " — after  he  had 
emerged  from  that  long  war  and  needed  something  fresh 
to  occupy  his  active  mind  and  superabundant  energies. 
Also,  the  wily  Monarch  was  by  no  means  sorry  to  de- 
monstrate to  those  who  believed  him  totally  ruined,  that 
their  supposition  was  both  untrue  and  impertinent, 
since  he  could  devote  in  six  years — that  is,  from  1763 
to  1769 — the,  for  those  times  of  "corvee"  really  enor- 
mous sum  of  $10,000,000  to  the  completion  of  this  new 
undertaking. 

163 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

It  was  a  place  of  magnificent  proportions,  of  superb 
halls  and  broad  staircases,  filled  with  a  dazzling  wealth 
of  beauty  which  could  not  fail  to  impress  all  on-lookers. 
Around  it,  stretching  away  in  all  directions,  was  a  glo- 
rious park,  while  immediately  beneath  the  countless 
windows  were  a  huge  "  Cour  d'Honneur"  and  lovely  gar- 
dens, made  to  blossom  in  the  cruel  north  like  a  damask 
rose  in  the  desert. 

Frederick  the  Great  possessed,  as  every  one  knows,  a 
deep  sense  of  humor,  and  never  bowed  to  any  lament- 
able necessity  for  deceit.  Moreover,  he  was  a  man  who 
treated  and  spoke  of  women  as  a  class — creatures  to 
be  dealt  with  successfully  or  not,  according  to  no  gener- 
ality or  maxim. 

Three  women  had  until  the  peace  of  Hubertusburg 
given  him  a  considerable  amount  of  what  is  called  in 
French,  "  dit  fil  a  retordre,"  or,  in  other  words,  these  three 
Graces  had  tangled  the  threads  of  his  Sovereign  life  so 
intricately  that  few  men  could  have  extricated  them- 
selves as  he  did  from  the  perils  and  difficulties  with 
which  they  had  beset  his  way.  These  three  Graces  were 
Empress  Elizabeth-Petrovna  of  Russia,  Empress  Maria- 
Theresa  of  Austria,  and  Madame  de  Pompadour — Em- 
press of  the  King  of  France's  heart!  This  being  the 
case,  the  victorious  Prussian  King,  with  an  irony  which 
in  those  days  was  thought  both  witty  and  amusing, 
and  which  only  our  deplorably  "bourgeois"  epoch  could 
gibe  at — reared  upon  the  dome  of  his  beloved  palace 
three  figures  representing  these  superbly  beautiful  wom- 
en in  the  act  of  eternally  upholding  the  Prussian  Crown, 
which  they  had  done  their  very  best  to  snatch  from  him. 

The  irony  may  have  been  "risquee,"  but  the  eigh- 
teenth century  was  somewhat  given  to  that  sort  of 
thing,  and  when  a  man  has  just  gone  through  seven 
years  of  the  bitterest  life-and-death  struggle,  he  shows  a 

164 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

great  deal  of  "esprit"  indeed  in  contenting  himself  with 
merely  immortalizing  the  lovely  shapes  of  his  fair  but 
relentless  enemies. 

Be  this,  however,  as  it  may,  it  is  a  patent  fact  that 
Frederick  the  Great  is  held,  and  justly  so,  in  especial 
veneration  by  his  Imperial  descendant,  William  II., 
and  that  the  " Neucs -Palais"  was  from  his  earliest  child- 
hood a  favorite  residence.  There  he  romped  with  his 
brother  Henry  in  the  spacious,  high  -  ceiled  nurseries, 
and  both  royal  boys  thought  even  then  proudly  of  their 
illustrious  ancestor,  of  his  indomitable  energy,  his  ex- 
traordinarily sagacious  statesmanship,  and  his  wellnigh 
unequalled  glory  as  a  war  lord.  When,  therefore, 
those  who  had  done  so  much  to  embitter  his  own  life; 
when,  I  say — not  his  dying  father,  as  has  erroneously 
been  stated,  but  his  father's  party  —  the  vexatious, 
tactless  "  Friedrickers  "  had  the  incomparable  audacity 
to  coolly  change  the  name  of  the  pet  achievement  and 
principal  memorial  of  Prussia's  national  hero  in  order 
to  assert  their  own  importance  and  arrogance,  he  made 
immediate  use  of  his  newly  acquired  power  to  erase 
this  piece  of  vandalism  and  to  reinstate  the  old  order 
of  things. 

Those  who  blame  him  for  it  display,  in  my  humble 
opinion,  a  good  deal  more  than  a  crass  ignorance  of  all 
that  had  gone  before.  It  is  not  good  always  to  meddle 
with  the  past,  for 

"  Who  when  they  slash  and  cut  to  pieces, 
Do  so  with  civilest  addresses?" 


CHAPTER  VIII 

WHEN  William  began  his  career  in  the  army,  his  Im- 
perial grandfather,  in  a  speech  memorable  for  its  quiet 
and  convincing  eloquence,  reviewed  the  policy  of  the 
House  of  Hohenzollern.  Passing  back  two  hundred 
and  fifty  years,  to  the  days  when  the  ambitions  of  that 
House  were  circumscribed  by  the  frontiers  of  the  petty 
Baltic  principality  of  Brandenburg,  he  instanced  the 
conduct  of  each  of  his  predecessors:  Frederick  William, 
the  Great  Elector,  and  his  son,  Frederick  I.,  who  first 
grasped,  the  one  the  essentials  of  royal  power,  the 
other  its  outward  symbol,  the  Crown;  Frederick  Will- 
iam I.  and  Frederick  the  Great,  who  by  wisdom  in 
council  and  courage  in  the  field  extended  and  rendered 
firm  and  permanent  the  Monarchy,  thus  making  possi- 
ble that  splendid  recuperative  effort  which,  under  the 
direction  of  the  third  Frederick  William,  not  only  drag- 
ged Prussia  from  the  grasp  of  Napoleon,  but,  England 
aiding,  gave  him  his  death-blow.  He  touched  upon 
each  King  down  to  the  time  when  he  himself  had  in- 
herited the  Throne,  and  showed  that  the  attention  and 
energies  of  each  one,  the  strongest  as  well  as  the  least 
successful,  had  been  concentrated  upon  the  army;  that 
it  was  upon  the  army  that  the  greatness  of  the  Father- 
land had  always  rested,  and  to  which  was  due  every 
accession  of  territory  from  the  acquisition  of  the  name 
and  province  of  Prussia  from  Poland,  in  the  seventeenth 
century,  down  to  the  conquest  of  Alsace  -  Lorraine  in 
1871. 

166 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

He  exhorted  the  young  man  from  this  very  outset  of 
his  career  to  cling  to  the  unvarying  and  well -proven 
traditions  of  his  family,  to  build  the  edifice  of  his  reign 
upon  this  sure  corner-stone,  that  had  been  tested  by 
his  ancestors;  to  spare  no  care  or  pains,  to  consider  no 
detail  too  small,  no  jot  or  tittle  of  military  organization 
as  negligible  or  insignificant,  but  to  devote  himself  to, 
and  to  rely  upon,  first,  last,  and  all  the  time,  the  army 
— always  the  army! 

William  II.  is  before  all  things  a  soldier.  He  has 
followed  to  the  letter  the  instructions  of  his  august 
grandsire;  he  has  done  more  for  the  army  and  navy  of 
his  country  than  any  of  the  Sovereigns  who  preceded 
him  on  the  Throne;  and  yet,  with  that  peculiar  bent 
towards  indiscriminate  blame  which  the  world  has  found 
fit  to  display  towards  him,  he  is  accused  even  to-day  of 
' '  exultant  militarism. ' ' 

The  first  proclamation  to  his  soldiers,  to  which  I  al- 
luded in  the  last  chapter,  and  which  he  closed  by  say- 
ing, "We  belong  to  each  other,  I  and  the  army;  thus  we 
were  born  for  one  another;  and  firmly  and  inseparably 
will  we  hold  together,  whether  it  is  God's  will  to  give  us 
peace  or  storm,"  was  imputed  to  him  as  a  piece  of  un- 
warrantable boastfulness,  which  aroused,  as  one  intel- 
ligent author  kindly  states,  "the  contemptuous  lighter 
of  Europe!1'  while  another,  equally  brilliant  and  apposite, 
is  good  enough  to  inform  his  readers  that  "an  evil  day 
for  Germany  has  dawned  with  the  advent  of  this  presump- 
tuous youth  /"  and  that  "a  groan  of  despairing  disgust  is 
rising  from  every  part  of  the  globe  where  people  are  watch- 
ing German  affairs  /" — this  is  textual. 

Calumny  is  a  disease,  but  so  is  wilful  misapprehen- 
sion— a  disease  which  spreads,  eating  its  unwholesome 
way  through  invisible  tissues.  It  reaches  the  Sovereign 
on  his  gilded  throne  just  as  securely  and  cruelly  as  the 

167 


IMPERATOR   ET    REX 

poor  man  in  his  hovel,  because  it  is  based  on  lies,  and 
it  creates  in  those  submitted  to  its  baneful  influence  a 
sort  of  nausea  of  the  soul  infinitely  hard  to  bear.  It 
tarnishes  the  cleanliness  and  sensitive  delicacy  of  the 
purest  and  most  innocent;  to  some  natures  it  causes  a 
feeling  of  shame  and  personal  degradation,  to  others 
fits  of  impotent  fury,  for  against  its  insidious  assaults 
no  cure  is  of  avail.  It  is  a  swollen  river  rolling  on  its 
obstinate  way ;  a  rank  morsel  the  flavor  of  which  never 
becomes  stale  to  the  human  palate;  a  sea  the  unfathom- 
able depths  of  which  are  still  unexplored ;  a  mountain  of 
which  the  dizzy  heights  have  never  been  quite  reached ; 
an  evil  magician  freezing  warm  rivers  of  love  as  he  goes, 
easily  fording  cold  streams  of  hatred  and  stepping  vic- 
toriously through  vast  plains  where  strange  growths  are 
born  beneath  his  feet,  and  where  he  leaves  behind  him 
a  track  of  tears,  humiliation,  and  dread. 

The  only  effect  wilful  misapprehension  or  misinter- 
pretation or  any  other  sort  of  injustice  has  ever  had  upon 
William  II.  is  to  make  his  eyes  flash  with  a  dull  blue 
gleam — which  is  rather  terrifying  to  behold — for  his 
philosophy  is  that  of  a  rare  school,  not  solely  confined  to 
making  the  best  of  other  people's  troubles.  His  own 
difficulties  have  been  too  great  not  to  have  taught  him 
how  to  meet  unfairness  with  contempt;  and  so,  when 
meeting  with  it,  with  a  sort  of  quick  mental  jerk — as 
if  making  an  almost  mechanical  effort  to  recover  a  mo- 
mentarily wavering  balance — he  resumes  his  every -day 
attitude  as  if  nothing  had  come  to  disturb  his  tranquillity. 

On  the  1 8th  of  June,  1888 — that  is,  three  days  after 
his  father's  death — he  gave  out  a  manifesto  to  the  Prus- 
sian people,  concluding  with  words  which  have  evident- 
ly been  ever  since  then  constantly  before  his  eyes,  since 
his  deeds  during  the  past  sixteen  years  have  fairly  mir- 
rored them: 

168 


IMPERATOR   ET    REX 

"/  have  vowed  to  Almighty  God  that,  after  the  ex- 
ample of  my  forefathers,  I  will  be  a  just  and  clement 
Prince  to  my  people,  that  I  will  foster  piety  and  the  fear 
of  God,  and  that  I  will  protect  the  peace,  promote  the 
welfare  of  the  country,  be  a  helper  to  the  poor  and  dis- 
tressed, and  a  true  guardian  of  the  right!" 

Yet  that  persistent  enmity  with  which  he  has  been 
viewed,  that  unalterable  prejudice  with  which  the 
world  has  chosen  to  read  something  repellent  between 
the  lines  of  a  straightforward  and  noble  reign,  elected 
to  call  this  "a  vainglorious  harangue!"  Truly  f  man  is 
an  ugly  animal,  ever  seeking  whom  he  may  devour! 
William  II.,  during  those  first  days,  when  from  the  rest- 
less multitude  came  a  dull,  continuous  roar  as  of  a 
muddy  disturbed  ocean,  was  certainly  enabled  to  add 
to  his  experiences  of  the  world  and  its  ways  many  fur- 
ther illustrations  tending  towards  contempt  of  it. 
"Mais  telle  est  la  vie  I" 

When  Emperor  William  II.  gave  forth  to  his  people 
that  he  would  for  the  first  time  open  the  Reichstag  on 
the  25th  of  July,  1888,  a  great  curiosity  compelled  all 
Germany's  minor  Sovereigns  to  come  in  person,  or  to 
cause  themselves  to  be  represented  by  their  Heirs-Ap- 
parent, and,  indeed,  that  imposing  ceremony  turned 
out  to  be  the  most  extraordinarily  brilliant  of  its  kind 
ever  performed  at  Berlin. 

The  young  Emperor's  entrance  created  a  sensation. 
Accompanied  by  the  aged  Regent  of  Bavaria  and  the 
old  King  of  Saxony,  he  moved  slowly  and  with  the 
natural  dignity  which,  until  that  day,  had  remained 
unperceived  by  the  greater  number  of  those  present, 
while  an  almost  mysterious  stillness  seemed  to  envelop 
him.  His  slim,  graceful  figure  had  acquired  something 
almost  solemn  in  its  appearance  from  the  long  velvet 
mantle  falling  in  rich  folds  about  him,  and  his  stern 

169 


IMPERATOR   ET    REX 

face  looked  to  unusual  advantage  beneath  the  eagle- 
crested  silver  helmet  he  wore. 

As  a  pageant,  this  particular  Reichstag-opening  was 
gorgeous  and  impressive  beyond  compare,  and  as  a  tri- 
umph, few  men  ever  knew  one  greater  than  that  day 
brought  to  William,  for  from  the  very  moment  when  he 
cast  his  eyes  upon  the  dazzling  picture  that  the  crowd  of 
superbly  uniformed  Princes  and  great  dignitaries  com- 
posed in  the  magnificent  hall,  he  realized  that  for  the 
first  time  he  held  his  public  in  the  hollow  of  his  hand. 
It  was  not  in  his  nature  to  find  solace  and  consolation  for 
long  years  of  injustice  in  the  spontaneous  homage  of  an 
assembly  of  people  hitherto  obdurate  and  recalcitrant; 
but  he  could  not  forbear  for  one  fleeting  second  to  glance 
into  the  one  pair  of  eyes  wherein  tenderness  and  sym- 
pathy had  constantly  glowed  for  him,  as  if  to  lay  these 
his  first  laurels  at  the  feet  of  the  young  Empress,  who, 
draped  in  the  long  crepe  veils  of  deep  mourning,  with 
no  relief  to  it  save  that  afforded  by  the  marvellous  fair- 
ness of  her  skin  and  the  glitter  of  some  Orders,  stood 
behind  him,  looking  better  than  she  had  ever  done  in 
that  contrast  of  blond  comeliness  with  the  sombre  robe 
and  head-dress  she  wore. 

On  the  topmost  step  of  the  dais,  erect,  motionless,  and 
holding  in  one  hand  the  parchment  whereon  his  speech 
was  engrossed,  while  the  other  grasped  the  hilt  of  his 
great  sword,  this  new  Emperor,  whom  every  one  had 
distrusted,  aroused  boundless  astonishment  and  amaze. 
The  purple  and  gold  of  the  Throne  shone  behind  him, 
and  when  he  spoke,  the  melody  of  a  voice,  marvellously 
tuned  to  the  highest  expression  of  human  feeling  and 
of  human  eloquence,  rolled  through  the  silence  of  the 
lofty  hall,  with  an  impressiveness  so  utterly  unexpected 
that  its  peroration  was  greeted  by  a  low  murmur  of 
genuinely  enthusiastic  admiration.  The  cynical  hearers, 

170 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

who  had  come  disposed  to  cavil  and  to  sneer,  and  who 
had  prophesied  much  evil,  were  smitten  with  a  momen- 
tarily sincere  remorse,  and  two  great  tears  stole  down 
the  cheeks  of  the  woman  whom  this  cynicism  and  in- 
justice towards  her  idolized  Consort  had  so  grievously 
wounded,  and  fell  on  the  sparkling  diamonds  of  her  Orders. 

Nor  was  there  wanting  in  this  Emperor's  dignity  the 
sympathetic  touch  that  is  as  the  stamp  upon  the  gold, 
for  as,  in  the  momentary  hush  that  followed  the  address, 
Bismarck  advanced  to  receive  the  scroll,  and  bowed  his 
gray  head  to  kiss  the  hand  of  his  young  Sovereign, 
William  gently  withdrew  it,  smiling,  and  slightly  moving 
his  head  with  a  gesture  of  negation.  It  was  a  gracious 
tribute  from  youth  to  age,  from  the  one  who  puts  on 
the  armor  to  him  who  is  about  to  take  it  off. 

"  When  the  time  comes  he  will  astonish  Europe!"  so  had 
Gortchakow  spoken.  One  could  always  rely  implicitly 
upon  the  predictions  of  that  strange  Muscovite  Wizard! 
Was,  then,  this  imposing  Monarch,  so  full  of  authority 
and  impressive  eloquence,  the  taciturn,  sombre,  silent 
youth  so  often  accused  of  temper  and  of  sullenness? 
He  was  not  yet  thirty  and  looked  younger  on  that  day, 
although  past  sorrow  and  pain  had  marked  two  deep 
lines  on  either  side  of  the  firmly  chiselled  lips ;  the  stead- 
fast, sapphire-hued  eyes  sparkled  with  determination, 
and  conveyed  in  some  indefinite  way  the  impression  that 
this  Monarch  was  in  his  element,  that  he  had  glided  into 
a  position  for  which  he  was  especially  created,  and  that 
the  calm,  speculative  scrutiny  with  which  he  faced  his 
hearers  would  unhesitatingly  separate  the  chaff  from 
the  valuable  grain  among  those  serried,  multi-colored 
ranks.  This  soldier-King  would  not  rest,  it  seemed  plain, 
until  he  had  done  his  duty  to  the  uttermost  end,  and  the 
faint  shadow  of  a  smile  hovering  now  upon  his  clear-cut 
features  was  emphatically  not  one  of  approval. 

12  11 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

There  is  no  man  who  can  boast  that  he  is  free  from 
the  trammels  of  duty,  for  duty  is  a  certainty  from  which 
none  can  escape;  but  the  duties  which  henceforth  de- 
volved upon  this  particular  Anointed  of  the  Lord  were 
truly  titanic  in  their  proportions,  and  none  but  a  man  of 
his  indomitable  energy  could  have  trained  himself  so  per- 
fectly to  assume  them  under  the  galling  volleys  of  abuse 
levelled  at  him  for  years,  without  wavering  and  faltering 
at  some  time  or  another.  His  gallant  work  lay  now  be- 
fore him  quite  clearly.  He  had  sworn  to  accomplish  it 
in  its  entirety,  and  the  last  sixteen  years  have  proved 
that  he  spoke  naught  else  but  the  truth. 

And  what  of  Prince  Bismarck?  Was  the  new  Ruler 
of  the  German  Confederation  really,  as  the  Liberal  party 
claimed,  completely  in  the  grasp  of  his  great  Chancellor  ? 
There,  again,  tongues  wagged  far  faster  than  truth  should 
have  allowed!  The  Hohenzollerns  are  a  stiff -backed, 
masterful  race,  extraordinarily  opposed  to  anything  but 
personal  government,  not  much  given  to  accepting  ad- 
vice, clinging  every  one  of  them  with  unimpaired  strength 
to  the  old  kingly  traditions  of  Prussia. 

Constitutionalism  and  the  acceptance  of  modern  gov- 
ernmental ideas  were  a  mistake  in  that  region,  as  Em- 
peror William  I.  had  found  out,  and  bitterly  to  his  cost, 
in  1862.  His  kindly  heart  revolted  against  the  idea  of 
adopting  violent  measures  to  defend  the  Monarchy 
against  its  countless  enemies,  and  of  being,  perchance, 
forced  to  sweep  the  streets  of  his  capital  with  grape- 
shot  in  defence  of  law  and  order.  This  accounts  for  his 
sagacious  resolve  to  recall  from  Paris,  where  he  was 
exercising  the  functions  of  Ambassador,  the  one  man 
capable  of  helping  him  in  so  sore  a  dilemma. 

Otto  von  Bismarck  was  an  exceptional  man  in  work, 
deed,  and  thought;  his  soldierly  frame  and  grim,  hard 
features  betrayed  so  much  at  one  glance.  Like  many 

172 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

great  men  he  found  his  "wittier"  by  accident,  when  his 
King  hurriedly  sent  for  him,  and  officially  appointed 
him  Minister  of  his  House  and  of  Foreign  Affairs, 
secretly  charging  him  to  make  Prussia  walk  straight  in 
the  path  of  duty,  without  the  help — or  hinderance — of 
a  Parliament. 

The  quick  defiance  hurled  by  the  Liberals  to  the  Con- 
servatives had  drawn  Count  Bismarck  from  the  gay, 
frivolous  French  capital  to  the  dreary  city  on  the  Spree, 
where  the  very  paving-stones  were  about  to  be  dyed 
with  blood,  and  where  deadly  hatred  awaited  him.  The 
sulphurous  smoke  of  revolution  filled  his  nostrils  when 
he  arrived,  but  his  upraised  finger  and  his  severe,  un- 
reassuring  eyes  produced  an  almost  magical  effect  upon 
the  turbulent  rioters. 

It  sometimes  is  thus  when  a  man  whose  courage  is 
practically  without  bounds  and  whose  scruples  are  not 
numerous  makes  a  sudden  appearance  upon  such  a 
scene.  He  made  from  the  first  no  secret  of  his  inde- 
pendence of  all  political  parties,  nor  of  the  fact  that  he 
was,  above  everything  else,  the  man  of  the  King,  and 
assumed,  with  admirable  serenity,  the  anomalous  po- 
sition of  a  non-Royal  personage  who  runs  a  Monarch's 
risks. 

Bismarck  was  a  born  Ruler.  His  great  knowledge  of 
political,  governmental,  and  military  subjects,  his  in- 
stinctive divination  of  men's  motives,  saved  him  from 
the  many  pitfalls  that  usually  lie  concealed  in  the  path 
of  all  who  assume  the  prerogatives  of  Sovereign  power 
without  occupying  a  well-defended  Throne,  and  during 
those  foreboding  days  after  his  return  from  Paris  he 
had  many  an  occasion  to  prove  what  metal  he  was  made 
of.  Indeed,  he  was  a  surprise  to  those  who  had  only 
looked  upon  him  as  a  clever  diplomat,  in  spite  of  his 
martial  appearance,  for  there  was  a  resolution  in  his 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

harsh  eyes  which  gave,  I  have  been  told,  those  who 
met  them  then 'an  unpleasant  shock. 

The  relations  between  the  King  and  his  Minister  were 
something  quite  apart,  and  not  without  their  touching 
element.  First  of  all,  they  were  genuinely  and  deeply 
fond  of  one  another,  true  and  loyal  to  each  other  always. 
When  one  watched  them  together — were  it  but  for  a 
few  minutes — the  perfect  sympathy  existing  between 
them  fairly  rose  up  and  buffeted  one  in  the  face. 

As  love  is  inexplicable,  so  is  such  a  friendship.  No 
man  born  of  woman  can  explain  precisely  the  why  and 
the  wherefore  of  such  things,  and,  moreover,  there  is 
nothing  that  brings  men  so  close  together  as  a  common 
grievance  or  a  common  danger.  In  most  cases,  how- 
ever, there  is  sure  to  arise,  sooner  or  later,  in  such  sit- 
uations a  spirit  of  competition,  of  jealousy  even.  No 
such  feeling  ever  crept  between  King  William  of  Prussia 
and  Otto  von  Bismarck  during  the  long  years  of  their 
intimacy. 

There  existed  between  those  two  men  many  an  anal- 
ogy. The  same  strict  attention  to  the  matter  in  hand, 
a  mutual  and  common  respect  for  perseverance  and 
power  of  endurance,  and  a  quiet,  superior  capacity  for 
settling  down  "de  concert"  without  delay  to  the  regula- 
tion of  necessary  details,  which  made  them  go  wonder- 
fully smoothly  in  a  sort  of  idealized  double-harness. 
Also,  one  cannot  conceive  of  it  as  possible  to  have  edu- 
cated the  manliness  out  of  either  of  them,  which  is  one 
of  the  highest  compliments  one  can  pay  to  their  joint 
memory. 

Their  respective  status,  too,  had  this  of  good  in  it, 
that  there  could  be  no  serious  thought  of  real  rivalry, 
that  in  the  work  they  did  together  there  need  be  no 
question  of  first  and  last;  and  be  it  said  in  justice 
to  Bismarck,  that  one  of  the  finest  traits  of  his  char- 

174 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

acter  was  the  fashion  in  which  he  invariably  effaced  him- 
self officially  before  his  Royal  Master.  Indeed,  during 
the  last  eighteen  years  of  the  latter's  life,  his  devoted 
Chancellor  carried  the  fear  of  wounding  this  august 
friend's  sensitiveness  to  so  great  an  extent  that  he  ab- 
solutely declined  to  appear  either  at  the  opera  or  at  any 
other  public  place  of  amusement,  lest  the  popular  ova- 
tions to  which  his  presence  invariably  gave  rise  should 
be  as  loud  and  enthusiastic  as  those  that  greeted  the  old 
Sovereign  on  similar  occasions. 

Little  did  either  of  these  wonderfully  matched  friends 
think  that  the  intimacy  inaugurated  by  the  revolution- 
ary troubles  of  1862  was  to  run  a  smooth  and  steady 
course,  extending  from  thence  throughout  this  strange 
and  perilous  pilgrimage  that  we  call  life,  without  their 
even  for  an  instant  losing  their  kinship  of  mutual  esteem 
and  respect. 

It  was  difficult  for  the  old  Chancellor  to  realize  when 
William  II.  ascended  the  Throne  that  he  no  longer  had 
to  deal  with  the  old  and  valued  patron  who  had  so  con- 
stantly played  into  his  hands,  nor  that  the  blue-eyed 
baby  whom  he  had  dandled  on  his  knee,  the  youth 
he  had  counselled  often  and  treated  as  he  would  one 
of  his  own  children,  was  now  his  Sovereign  Master. 
Difficult,  too,  it  was  for  the  young  Emperor  to  act  other- 
wise than  in  a  quasi  -  filial  way  towards  his  beloved 
grandfather's  old  friend  and  adviser.  On  both  sides  the 
position  was  a  terribly  thorny  and  delicate  one,  demand- 
ing oceans  of  mutual  tact  and  forbearance  to  make  it 
at  all  bearable. 

I  have  always  deeply  sympathized  with  William  in 
that  regard,  for  I  remember  how  greatly  taken  aback  I 
was  when,  after  returning  from  my  first  wedding-trip, 
I  found  myself  confronted  in  my  husband's  household 
by  a  pearl  of  a  steward  who  had  reigned  there  supreme 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

since  my  grandfather-in-law's  time,  and  who  was  so 
precious,  so  admirable,  and  so  imbued  with  a  sense  of 
these  qualities  that  to  offer,  not  a  reprimand — that  was, 
of  course,  quite  out  of  the  question — but  a  mere  observa- 
tion, savored  of  unpardonable  ingratitude,  not  to  say 
downright  brutality.  There  was  in  that  old  man's 
eyes  an  intelligence  that  stood  apart ;  it  seemed  to  refer 
to  the  past  he  so  gloried  in,  or,  perchance,  to  the  future, 
which  evidently  appeared  to  him  draped  in  the  gloomiest 
colors,  while  his  incorrigible  leisureliness  prevented  a 
rendering  of  full  justice  to  his  present  powers.  These 
eyes  used  to  rest  upon  me  with  a  sort  of  wandering  at- 
tention when  I  ventured  to  propose  the  slightest  altera- 
tion in  his  adamantine  laws,  and  there  was  something 
in  his  attitude  that  denoted  such  cruel  and  unmerited 
reproach,  and  in  the  tones  of  his  voice  a  sort  of  respect- 
ful revolt,  never  rising  to  argument  nor  descending  to 
remonstrance,  which  made  my  own  position  quite  un- 
tenable. The  truth  is  that  it  would  have  been  a  hope- 
less one  as  well,  had  not  Providence  intervened,  rather 
drastically,  alas !  as  far  as  this  irreplaceable  and  worthy 
functionary  was  concerned,  for,  as  befitted  his  lofty 
opinion  of  himself,  he  was  laid  low  by  that  aristocratic 
malady  called  rich-man's  gout,  to  such  an  extent  that 
he  had  to  be  pensioned  off,  and  that  his  place  in  my 
realm  knew  him  no  more. 

William  II.,  shortly  after  ascending  the  Throne,  be- 
came aware  of  the  urgent  necessity  of  taking  immediate 
steps  to  prevent  Bismarck  from  handicapping  him  too 
heavily,  by  the  preponderance  he  strove  to  retain  in 
matters  governmental,  and  also  to  make  him  under- 
stand, as  gently  and  affectionately  as  possible,  that 
he,  the  Emperor,  intended  to  reign  alone  in  Prussia. 

At  first  the  aged  Chancellor  failed  to  recognize  the 
gravity  of  the  peril  confronting  him.  He  had  dur- 

176 


THE    EMPEROR   A    FEW   YEARS    AFTER    HIS    ACCESSION 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

ing  too  many  years  pervaded  in  a  subtle  but  all- 
powerful  fashion  the  whole  atmosphere  of  Prussia  to 
imagine  the  possibility  of  being  relegated  to  a  secondary 
place;  but  at  last,  to  his  almost  pathetic  bewilderment, 
it  began  to  dawn  upon  him  that  he  had  stumbled  in 
the  dark  upon  a  force  far  greater  than  himself. 

All  at  once  he  became  restless  and  full  of  suspicion, 
for,  poor  old  man!  not  only  was  the  happiness  of  his  re- 
maining years  at  stake,  but  also  the  future  of  that  Bis- 
marckian  dynasty  which  he  had  fondly  hoped  to  found. 
He  had  dreamed  of  seeing,  before  he  died,  his  eldest 
son  as  powerful  in  Germany  as  he  was  then  himself,  and 
he  proceeded  to  charge  upon  the  impassable  obstacles 
suddenly  raised  before  him  with  all  his  old,  reckless  self- 
confidence. 

Quite  undisturbed,  cool,  courteous,  friendly  to  the 
last,  the  young  Emperor  awaited  his  attack,  for  he  un- 
derstood perfectly  that  the  time  for  battle  had  come, 
and,  possessing  in  a  marked  degree  that  greatest  power 
of  all,  which  consists  in  going  right  inside  the  mind  of 
another  and  of  divining  the  things  that  are  there,  he 
was  quite  certain  to  easily  thwart  every  plot  concerted 
to  circumvent  him.  He  said  nothing,  imparted  no  con- 
fidences to  any  one,  betrayed  no  haste  nor  impatience, 
but  stood  firm  as  a  rock,  armed  "  cap-ct-pie,"  a  strangely 
peaceful  but  very  grim  figure,  difficult  to  assail.  His 
attitude  was  extraordinarily  forcible,  yet  quite  devoid 
of  violence,  and  might  have  been  characterized  as  won- 
derfully weather-wise. 

To  Prince  Bismarck,  however,  it  was  dreadfully  un- 
satisfactory, and  served  to  increase  by  leaps  and  bounds 
his  feverish  irritability,  which  was  soon  to  be  lashed 
into  a  white  fury  of  indescribable  magnitude.  The 
storm  was  approaching,  premonitory  lightnings  ran  over 
the  aged  Chancellor's  heavens,  making  the  sky  seem 

177 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

darker  for  their  passage.  He  himself  showed  a  sur- 
prising lack  of  self-restraint,  and  losing  what  age  and 
fatigue  had  left  him  of  that  wonderful  sagacity  in  mat- 
ters political,  for  which  he  was  so  justly  famed,  he 
blundered  heavily  several  times. 

Behind  his  half  -  closed  vizor  William  peered  forth 
into  the  tempest.  There  was  no  question  of  fending 
off  such  torrents  of  newspaper  attack,  and  threats 
either  to  resign  or  to  join  the  opposite  camp,  as  his 
maddened  Chancellor  used  for  weapons;  indeed,  the 
onslaught  seemed  in  no  way  to  discompose  the  young 
Emperor,  who  watched  it  all  with  a  slight  smile  of  amuse- 
ment, which  was  full  of  significance  to  the  initiated. 

Bismarck,  meanwhile,  grew  bolder  and  bolder,  less 
and  less  guarded.  His  own  opinion  of  himself  rose  to 
dizzier  and  dizzier  heights,  and  brought  him  to  that  pass 
where  master  and  servant  seem  to  stand  equal  before 
the  levelling  potency  of  a  sorely  embittered  personal 
feeling. 

The  autocratic  airs  which  the  struggling  Chancellor 
and  his  somewhat  rough  -  natured  son,  Herbert,  gave 
themselves  at  that  time  would  have  infuriated  a  man 
less  sure  of  himself  and  less  merciful  than  William. 
He  never  forgot  for  a  moment,  however,  how  mighty 
and  superb  a  figure  in  German  history  Bismarck  really 
had  been;  constantly  he  remembered  also,  that  the 
Berserker  fight  now  going  on  was  waged  by  an  en- 
feebled old  man,  who  was  slowly  being  wedged  into  a 
corner  by  his,  William's,  uncompromisingly  steel-like 
but  velvet-gloved  grip,  and  under  no  circumstances  did 
he  allow  himself  to  display  anything  but  the  deepest 
kindness,  and  a  courtesy  and  indulgence  which  were, 
perchance,  but  a  greater  aggravation  to  his  brusque  and 
obstinate  opponent. 

He  made  a  point  during  the  last  days  of  this  extraor- 

178 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

dinary  conflict  to  dine  several  times  "en  grand  gala"  at 
Prince  Bismarck's  palace  in  the  Wilhelmstrasse,  and  of 
talking  sympathetically  and  most  graciously  to  his  de- 
pressed and  cruelly  pre  -  occupied  host.  Nor  was  this 
a  clever  dodge,  or  the  play  of  a  cat  with  a  helpless 
mouse,  but  the  outcome  of  the  absolutely  genuine  af- 
fection which,  at  the  bottom  of  his  heart,  William  still 
bore  the  man  who  had  been  the  ideal  of  his  whole  youth 
—the  man  for  whom  he  would  always  entertain  a  deep 
personal  reverence  as  the  most  illustrious  servant  of 
his  Dynasty,  and  the  foremost  among  the  creators  of 
the  new  German  Empire.  Every  one  of  his  actions,  nay, 
the  slightest  of  his  words,  was  marked  by  the  most  deli- 
cate and  high-bred  courtesy,  and  he  certainly  did  all 
that  lay  within  his  power  to  avoid  giving  unnecessary 
pain  to  his  doomed  Chancellor. 

Our  lives  have  a  knack  of  reaching  strangely  back 
into  the  lives  of  our  grandfathers ;  the  beginnings  made 
there  come  down  into  our  daily  existences,  shaping 
our  thoughts  and  actions;  and  that  which  just  then 
stood  between  William  II.  and  Prince  Bismarck  —  as 
far  as  William  was  concerned,  at  any  rate — was  not  the 
present  need  of  his  services,  but  the  fading  rays  of 
glory  still  sparkling  as  a  dazzling  halo  around  the  head 
of  this  giant  among  European  statesmen,  and  the  tra- 
ditions of  respect,  gratitude,  and  admiration  for  the  old 
Chancellor  inherited  by  all  bearing  the  name  of  Hohen- 
zollern. 

"  'Tis  one  thing  to  be  tempted, 
Another  thing  to  fall!" 

At  last,  however,  the  crisis  came.  In  the  course  of 
an  interview  between  the  Emperor  and  his  tottering 
Chancellor,  when  William  was  expressing  with  all  pos- 
sible gentleness  his  natural  disapproval  of  some  un- 

179 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

authorized  act  of  Bismarck,  the  latter,  in  a  sudden 
rush  of  irrepressible  anger,  gave  voice  to  the  very  words 
that  it  was  uppermost  in  his  mind  to  restrain.  Sudden- 
ly his  trembling  lips,  almost,  it  would  seem,  in  defiance 
of  his  own  will,  blurted  out  the  old  familiar  and  effective 
threat  of  instantaneous  resignation  from  office. 

The  Emperor  said  nothing  either  in  protest  or  other- 
wise, and  passed  on  to  other  subjects,  leaving  his  erst- 
while so  wily  Premier  a  prey  to  the  uttermost  depths 
of  humiliation  and  of  self-contempt.  He  simply  had 
nothing  to  say!  His  mind  had  suddenly  become  blank, 
and  with  a  strangely  touching  refinement  of  kindness, 
the  Emperor  managed  to  put  a  close  to  the  audience 
without  seeming  to  notice  the  old  man's  profound  per- 
turbation. 

Two  hours  afterwards,  however,  an  Imperial  aide-de- 
camp came  in  the  Emperor's  name  to  receive  the  official 
and  written  resignation  so  incautiously  proffered.  He 
found  Bismarck  smarting  under  a  sense  of  injury  most 
exasperatingly  indefinite,  although  his  mood  savored 
strongly  of  the  disgust  of  the  outwitted ;  his  eyes  flashed 
dangerously — so  the  aide-de-camp  remarked  afterwards 
— and  he  sent  back  an  evasive  reply,  explaining  that 
he  had  as  yet  not  found  time  to  write  the  resignation 
out,  but  would  do  so  later,  and  present  it  in  person  to 
His  Majesty  on  the  morrow. 

At  that  moment  a  sudden  ray  of  hope  shot,  no  doubt, 
athwart  the  future  into  which  Bismarck  was  staring  as 
if  hypnotized.  Yes!  he  would  stoop  to  pleading,  if 
necessary;  he  would  use  all  the  powers  at  his  command 
to  reawaken  the  tremendous  personal  influence  and 
magnetism  he  knew  himself  to  possess,  in  order  to  se- 
cure the  reconsideration  of  the  Imperial  verdict;  but 
he  had  once  again  reckoned  without  his  host,  for  not  only 
did  he  find  himself  unable  to  obtain  an  audience  from 

180 


TMPERATOR    ET    REX 

his  Sovereign  on  the  next  day,  without  the  aid  of  ridic- 
ulous persistency,  but  he  could  not  avoid  the  inexor- 
able aide-de-camp,  who  seemed  determined  —  "bien 
contre  son  gre"  assuredly  —  to  preempt  a  permanent 
domicile  in  the  "salon  d'attente"  adjoining  the  Prince's 
study  in  the  Wilhelmstrasse,  and  who,  quiet,  self-con- 
tained, deeply  respectful,  but  intrepid,  patiently  await- 
ed that  once  too  often  threatened  resignation. 

Caught  in  his  own  trap  as  helplessly  as  any  yearling  of 
diplomacy,  Bismarck,  cruelly  mortified  and  unspeak- 
ably indignant,  was  thus  forced  to  sign  his  own  dismissal, 
and  with  the  almost  supernatural  rapidity  with  which 
such  news  travels,  it  became  known  a  few  minutes  later 
across  the  whole  length  and  breadth  of  the  Prussian 
capital  that  the  Iron  Chancellor  had  fallen. 

It  is  impossible  not  to  feel  the  sincerest  pity  for  Bis- 
marck at  that  moment,  when  he  was  left  to  gulp  down 
as  best  he  might  his  nauseating  surprise.  Some  one 
who  saw  him  then  told  me  that  for  several  days  his  face 
remained  livid,  that  the  blue  of  his  dim  old  eyes  seemed 
to  be  suddenly  faded  to  an  ashen  gray,  and  that  he 
talked  in  a  pitiful,  lifeless  voice,  as  if  his  whole  being 
was  contracted  with  horror  and  with  pain.  Whatever 
Bismarck  had  done  to  deserve  his  fate,  he  was  now  an 
object  of  such  pity  that  before  it,  all  partisanship,  all 
personal  hatred  disappeared. 

Once  again  a  murmur  of  "Royal  ingratitude'1  ran 
throughout  Germany,  and  strong  and  hardened  though 
the  Emperor  was  against  unjust  criticisms,  yet  this  time 
his  nerves  were  all  a-tingle  with  exasperation,  for  if  ever 
a  man  had  shown  patient  gratitude  it  was  he,  espe- 
cially in  this  instance,  and  he  knew  it. 

There  was,  indeed,  a  strange  irony  in  this  sudden 
"volte-face"  of  a  large  part  of  the  German  people  with 
regard  to  one  so  long  and  so  loudly  proclaimed  their 

181 


IMPERATOR   ET    REX 

tormentor.  Yesterday  many  had  been  unanimous  in 
their  curses,  to-day  they  were  ready  to  rise  up  as  one 
man  to  call  him  blessed — this  Iron  Chancellor  beneath 
whose  relentless  hand  Kingdoms  had  trembled  and 
been  shaken  to  dust!  This  almost  hysterical  see- 
sawing back  towards  him,  this  complete  ''ratting,1' 
this  sudden  genuflection  before  the  enemy,  had  its 
good  side,  however,  for  the  Berlinese  made  the  de- 
throned Chancellor's  departure  the  occasion  for  a  great 
popular  demonstration,  and  it  is  well  that  they  did  so, 
since  the  spectacle  of  the  cold-blooded  desertion  of  so 
truly  great  a  man  would  have  been  a  new  offence  to 
human  nature. 

It  must  be  confessed  that  Bismarck  had  nobody  to 
thank  but  himself  for  his  downfall.  He  had  never 
cared  whether  he  was  loved  or  hated ;  he  had  contemptu- 
ously thrust  from  him  all  that  was  not  strength  and 
cunning;  he  had  displayed  a  callous  audacity  which 
had  never  poured  oil  on  troubled  waters,  but  cast  it 
carelessly  on  flames;  and,  at  the  last,  when  his  blood 
was  hot  and  his  brain  fermenting  like  yeast  because  he 
had  found  his  master,  wrath  for  once  had  clouded  his 
keen  perceptions,  and  he  had  committed  the  fatal  mis- 
take which  had  laid  him  low. 

The  survival  of  the  strongest  had  been  his  law;  why 
did  he  now  demur  at  it,  because  he  no  longer  was  the 
strongest,  because  his  hour  had  come,  and  in  one  brief 
moment  all  his  greatness  had  turned  to  ashes  in  his 
mouth  ?  But  his  sense  of  humiliation  and  fury  at  being 
thwarted  had  been  too  deep.  Temper  is  always  a  Dad 
adviser.  It  had  advised  him  badly  during  those  last 
few  months,  when  he  had  dealt  wholesale  in  thunder 
and  lightning.  Alas!  the  terrible,  slow  kindling,  but 
overwhelming  anger  of  this  great  Northerner  had  been 
his  destruction. 

182 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

The  young  Emperor  had  gone  patiently  through  to 
the  end,  always  hoping  against  hope  to  be  spared  the 
pain  of  separating  from  his  old  friend.  He  had  found 
out  some  things  which  had  surprised  him,  however, 
and  gradually  he  had  become  convinced  that  for  the 
honest  accomplishment  of  his  purpose,  for  Germany's 
welfare,  especially,  the  removal  of  Bismarck  was  im- 
perative. His  whole  self-training  had  been  one  of  de- 
votion to  duty,  so  now,  as  all  through  his  previous  life, 
did  he  do  what  he  considered  his  duty,  although  re- 
luctantly, and  only  when  he  had  been  pushed  to  his 
very  last  entrenchments. 

The  last  straw  had  been  Prince  Bismarck's  extraor- 
dinary conduct  with  regard  to  the  Berlin  International 
Labor  Congress,  which  William  had  set  his  heart  upon, 
thinking  that  this  might,  perchance,  be  a  means  other 
than  Bismarck's  harsh  measures  for  solving  the  socialis- 
tic and  labor  problems,  which  were  proving  more  and 
more  vexatious  throughout  Europe,  and  had  lately  be- 
come especially  acute  in  Germany. 

The  idea  was  a  wonderful  one — of  that  there  can  be  no 
doubt — and  a  generous.  It  was  dictated  by  one  of  those 
unselfish  impulses  which,  if  the  world  were  different 
from  what  it  is,  would  have  resulted  in  good  spreading 
over  Europe  like  sunlight  over  a  ripening  field;  but 
the  warm-hearted  young  Sovereign  had  yet  to  learn  one 
bitter  lesson,  and  that  was  that  any  endeavor  to  try  and 
raise  the  lower  orders,  to  educate  the  masses  above  the 
station  which  they  can  hope  to  occupy  in  life,  is  to  open 
wider  the  door  to  nihilism,  socialism,  riots,  ingratitude, 
and  all  their  accompanying  evils,  and  that  any  such 
project  is  bound  to  be  crumpled  up  by  the  treachery  of 
the  socialistic  leaders  and  agitators  themselves.  Doing 
good  to  mankind  wholesale  does  not  pay;  the  angels  in 
heaven  might  devise  such  plans,  but  even  they  could 

'83 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

not  carry  them  out  here  below.  It  is  a  sad  but  undeni- 
able fact  that  men  pick  to  pieces  and  degrade  everything 
that  is  done  to  pull  them  out  of  the  mire,  and  one  of 
which  Bismarck  was  well  aware. 

Indeed,  it  is  only  fair  to  say  here  that,  realizing  the 
Utopian  character  of  the  scheme,  and  seeing  its  imprac- 
ticability, he  at  first  argued  with  the  Emperor  on  the 
subject  "sotto  quattr'  occhi"  but  finding  that  his  new 
Sovereign  was  not  easily  argued  out  of  anything,  he 
resorted,  alas !  to  other  and  less  laudable  means  in  order 
to  prevent  the  Conference  from  taking  place.  First  of 
all,  he  proceeded  to  loudly  ridicule  the  whole  idea,  and, 
what  was  quite  unpardonable,  caused  it  to  be  scoffed 
at  and  treated  with  derision  in  the  press,  which  he  con- 
trolled both  at  home  and  abroad. 

The  Emperor  had  the  pleasure  of  reading  in  cold  type 
that  when  the  High  and  Mighty  are  eager  to  dabble  in 
socialistic  schemes  they  should  put  on  old  coats,  wear 
red  silk  scarfs  about  their  necks,  and  adopt  slouch  hats 
as  their  ordinary  head -gear  —  soft,  shabby  hats  that 
can  be  drawn  completely  down  so  as  to  conceal  their 
visages;  also,  that  the  realism,  the  sordid  details  of 
such  work  as  William  proposed  to  undertake,  were  not 
romantic,  and  would  fail  to  prove  as  "entertaining  as 
this  august  dabbler  in  charity  deemed  it  to  be" 

In  one  word,  Bismarck  sought  in  every  possible  and 
impossible  way  to  deter  William  from  persevering  in 
his  project,  and  when  at  last  he  had  to  acknowledge  him- 
self beaten  on  that  ground,  he  committed  with  extraor- 
dinary lack  of  tact  and  loyalty  his  supreme  "betise" 
namely,  that  of  negotiating  privately  with  the  various 
party  leaders,  with  a  view  to  the  postponement,  if  not 
the  complete  annihilation,  of  the  famous  Conference.  He 
even  communicated  with  the  President  of  the  Helvetic 
Confederation  with  a  view  to  arranging  a  Labor  Con- 

184 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

ference  at  Berne,  which  would  distract  the  attention  of 
the  interested  classes  from  Berlin.  This  was  decidedly 
going  a  step  too  far,  and  treating  Prussia's  King  too 
much  like  a  little  boy  who  is  anxious  to  stick  his  fingers 
in  some  forbidden  jar  of  preserves;  and  when  he  dis- 
covered this  unheard-of  piece  of  insolence,  the  young 
Monarch  made  up  his  mind  that  if  he  did  not  prompt- 
ly intervene,  his  autocratic  and  headstrong  Chancellor 
would  attempt  to  transform  him  into  a  mere  cipher, 
a  figure-head  at  the  utmost,  good  only  to  look  well  on 
a  Throne,  and  so  he  separated  himself  for  good  and  aye 
from  Bismarck. 

This  is  the  true  explanation,  despite  all  other  legends 
current  on  the  subject  of  what  it  was  then  the  fashion 
to  term  "Emperor  William's  incredible  ingratitude  tow- 
ards Bismarck,"  and  gives  but  one  more  proof  of  the 
phenomenal  unfairness  with  which  the  Emperor  was 
then  invariably  judged. 

As  to  the  Conference,  it  did  not  turn  out  to  be  a  suc- 
cess, probably  on  the  principle  that  a  flower  growing 
out  of  place  is  a  weed.  A  movement  which  had  for  its 
purpose  to  educate,  royally  feed,  and  gorgeously  clothe 
the  masses — and,  incidentally,  to  teach  them  to  be  yet 
more  discontented  with  their  lot — but  that  is,  perchance, 
only  my  gloomy  way  of  looking  at  it — to  raise  them  up 
until  they  drag  down  the  classes  still  above  them  in 
their  predestined  return  to  the  gutter,  failed  then  as  it 
has  always  failed  in  the  past  and  will  always  fail  in  the 
future,  until  the  millennium  is  reached,  thanks  to  the 
masses  themselves.  Set  a  beggar  on  horseback  and  one 
knows  what  to  expect! 

The  reconciliation  of  the  socialists  with  the  Crown 
was  not  to  be  compassed,  and  the  young  Emperor,  a 
wiser  and  sadder  man,  took  the  defeat  of  his  hopes 
quietly,  in  his  settled  and  self-contained  fashion — like 

185 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

a  person  who  has  played  for  a  big  stake,  and  knowing 
for  certain  that  it  is  lost,  does  not  want  to  play  again. 
He  bore  it  all  without  apparent  disappointment,  and 
even  the  members  of  the  Conference,  whom  he  received 
with  extreme  courtesy  and  kindness,  never  knew  how 
very  sore  he  felt  over  his  failure. 

As  an  example  of  this  I  will  here  give  a  transla- 
tion of  a  short  pen -sketch  of  William  II.,  by  Jules 
Simon,  one  of  the  members  of  the  Conference,  whose 
testimony  must  be  regarded  as  singularly  unbiased, 
since  as  a  Frenchman  and  an  ardent  republican  he  was 
certainly  not  inclined  by  racial  or  political  reasons  to 
look  with  particular  favor  upon  a  Prussian  Monarch. 

"The  Congress,"  he  wrote  in  the  "Revue  de  Paris" 
"was  held  in  the  salons  of  the  Chancellerie — that  is,  in 
Prince  Bismarck's  palace  of  the  Wilhelmstrasse,  al- 
though the  Prince  was  on  the  eve  of  his  disgrace.  The 
Emperor  was  not  present  at  our  opening  seance,  and 
never  put  in  an  appearance  during  the  whole  time  of 
our  debates,  but  we  were  all  invited  to  a  great  reception 
at  Court,  to  a  concert  given  in  honor  of  the  Prince  of 
Wales  and  to  a  banquet  given  in  our  own.  These 
Monarchical  'fetes'  were  an  interesting  spectacle  for 
me,  who  have  not  been  brought  up  in  the  lap  of  Royalty, 
and  for  my  French  colleagues,  who  had  not  even  known 
Napoleon  III. 

"  The  Imperial  palace  of  Berlin  in  no  way  resembles 
the  Tuileries;  it  is  an  immense  building,  very  lofty, 
forming  a  quadrangle  around  a  large  '  Cour  d'Honneur,' 
and  ends  by  a  vast  garden-like  terrace.  The  salons 
where  the  Emperor  habitually  receives  are  at  the  very 
top  floor,  and  we  were  requested  to  ascend  a  staircase, 
which  had  it  not  been  brilliantly  lighted  and  construct- 
ed of  white  marble,  might  easily  have  been  mistaken 
for  an  'escalier  de  service.'  There  is  another  one,  im- 

186 


AFTER    A    HARD    MORNING  S    WORK 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

mense  and  superb,  but  destined  for  Royal  personages 
only.  We  landed  near  an  ordinary-sized  door,  guarded 
by  two  splendid  and  gigantic  soldiers,  which  admitted 
directly  to  the  salons,  where  the  invited  guests  were  al- 
ready assembled. 

"These  salons  are  very  numerous,  and  did  not  seem 
to  me  to  contain  many  pictures  or  ornaments ;  but  you 
will  easily  understand  that  little  attention  was  granted 
to  such  details,  since  we  were  all  intent  upon  watching 
the  Emperor's  entry. 

"  Everybody  gravitated  towards  the  great  doors  at  the 
upper  end  when  Their  Majesties  were  announced.  The 
Emperor  and  Empress  were  bowing  to  right  and  to  left, 
and  spoke  for  a  few  moments  to  the  privileged.  The 
Emperor  addressed  a  few  obliging  and  amiable  words 
to  me,  and  so  did  the  Empress,  which  is  a  favor  rarely 
accorded.  Indeed,  I  felt  immediately  that  I  had  just 
acquired  some  personal  dignity,  and  not  without  a  lit- 
tle laugh  at  my  own  expense  wondered  whether  I  was 
not  already  transformed  into  a  courtier.  This  feeling 
increased  wonderfully  when  the  Grand  Master  of  Cere- 
monies requested  me  to  walk  alone  immediately  be- 
hind the  Emperor,  and  to  sit  down  on  his  right  at  the 
table.  I  was  grateful,  as  I  might  well  be,  for  these 
tokens  of  Imperial  favor  accorded  to  my  country,  which 
were  continued  during  the  whole  time  of  the  Congress. 

"I  sat  at  table  between  the  Emperor  and  a  lady 
who  I  thought  was  the  Grand  -  Mistress  of  the  Robes. 
On  the  Emperor's  left  sat  the  Empress,  and  on  the  Em- 
press's left  sat  the  Bishop  of  Breslau,  my  colleague  as 
Vice-President  of  the  Congress,  and  who  has  since  be- 
come Cardinal  Kopp,  one  of  Germany's  most  illustrious 
Catholic  Prelates. 

"M.  de  Moltke  sat  directly  opposite  to  the  Emperor, 
and  therefore  to  me,  also. 
13  187 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

"The  Emperor  was  gracious  enough  to  speak  to  me 
during  the  whole  time  the  dinner  lasted.  My  memory, 
unfortunately,  is  not  sufficiently  good  to  set  down  here 
all  he  said  on  that  occasion,  but  I  remember  every  word 
he  addressed  to  me  during  my  stay  in  Berlin,  although 
precisely  when  spoken  it  is  beyond  my  power  to 
recall. 

"On  the  day  of  the  great  Court  reception  I  was  not 
near  enough  to  the  Throne  to  hear  clearly,  and  on  that 
of  the  concert  in  the  White-Salon  I  did  not  come  into 
personal  contact  with  him;  but  he  has  created  another 
Court,  which  he  himself  described  to  me,  which  is  as 
select  and  envied  as  that  of  Marly  under  Louis  XIV., 
and  at  which  he  weekly  receives  twenty  friends.  I  cite 
the  very  words  he  used :  '  I  receive  about  twenty 
friends,  not  more,  some  officers,  some  professors;  the 
public  believes  that  we  hold  a  sort  of  secret  political 
council ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  we  assemble  only  to  have 
a  little  good  time,  to  tipple  (pour  godailler).  We  speak 
of  art,  of  literature!'  He  did  me  the  honor  of  inviting 
me  to  one  of  those  private  receptions. 

"Again  I  went  up  the  white  marble  staircase,  this 
time  accompanied  by  the  Minister  of  Commerce,  M. 
Berlepsch,  our  amiable  and  clever  President;  we  stop- 
ped at  the  floor  immediately  beneath  the  salons  and 
entered  a  large  room,  where  there  were  several  officers 
in  uniform.  I  felt  a  little  lonely  and  rather  embarrassed, 
not  knowing  who  was  the  host.  It  was  nine  o'clock 
and  the  place  was  not  very  well  lighted,  since  the  gleam 
of  the  candles  was  dulled  by  the  last  rays  of  the  setting 
sun;  I  therefore  vaguely  discerned  some  chairs  and  a 
table  shaped  like  a  horseshoe,  covered  with  a  green 
rug.  Really,  I  believed  myself  to  be  in  a  waiting-room, 
when  a  young  officer,  detaching  himself  from  a  group 
at  the  farther  end  of  the  apartment,  came  briskly  up 

188 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

to  me  and  asked  me  if  I  had  enjoyed  the  visit  I  had 
made  to  Sans-Souci  in  the  morning. 

"It  was  the  Emperor! 

"I  had  visited  Sans-Souci,  thanks  to  his  permission, 
and  in  a  carriage  graciously  lent  by  him,  and  he  ques- 
tioned me  narrowly  as  to  my  impressions  of  the  place. 
I  confessed  that  I  did  not  greatly  admire  Voltaire's 
room,  which  is  rather  overloaded  with  ornamentation. 
Then  he  spoke  to  me  of  Frederick  the  Great.  '  I  have 
seen  the  music-stand,'  I  said,  'but  not  the  flute!'  He 
laughed,  and  told  me  that  I  would  at  any  rate  see  the 
music,  for  he  had  caused  a  very  fine  edition  thereof  to 
be  printed,  and  would  give  me  a  copy.  'It  will  be,' 
added  he,  'a  souvenir  of  your  sojourn  in  Berlin!'  It 
would  be  impossible  to  be  more  courteously  gracious! 
The  volume  was  later  on  sent  to  me  through  the  Ger- 
man Embassy  in  Paris. 

"As  on  the  day  of  the  banquet,  I  was  told  to  sit  down 
on  the  Emperor's  right,  and  we  immediately  began  to 
smoke  and  to  drink  beer;  moreover,  I  had  once  again 
the  pleasure  of  a  long  conversation  with  the  Emperor, 
since  we  remained  sitting  there  until  midnight. 

"I  would  dearly  like  to  be  able  adequately  to  de- 
scribe this  conversation  and  the  Emperor's  person;  I  do 
not  know  whether  I  will  succeed.  I  have  never  seen 
him  out  of  uniform ;  I  scarcely  think  that  he  ever  wears 
anything  else.  On  that  particular  evening  he  had  on 
that  of  the  White  Hussars,  and,  as  he  is  very  slender, 
he  looked  like  a  young  officer — a  lieutenant.  I  had 
been  told  that  he  was  partial  to  the  Hussar  uniform, 
because  the  hanging  dolman  dissimulated  the  stiffness 
of  his  left  arm,  but  I  never  noticed  anything  peculiar 
in  his  attitude  with  or  without  dolman,  nor  even,  when 
quite  close  to  him,  saw  him  display  the  slightest  diffi- 
culty in  using  that  arm.  Therefore,  it  is  only  by  hear- 

189 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

say  that  I  am  acquainted  with  this  alleged  defect.  The 
Emperor's  face  is  very  agreeable,  his  expression  affable 
and  good-natured,  his  hair  is  chestnut,  with  golden  tints 
in  the  high  lights — I  speak  like  the  old-fashioned  pass- 
ports— and  his  complexion  rather  colorless  but  healthy, 
and  somewhat  tanned  by  open  air.  Truly  he  reminded 
me  of  our  young  Breton  or  Norman  nobles,  having  their 
high-bred  and  charming  manner.  If  I  am  to  be  quite 
truthful,  I  easily  perceived  behind  this  cheerful  mien  a 
something  denoting  that  it  would  be  best  not  to  dis- 
agree with  such  a  man  on  grave  matters — a  careful 
inspection  of  his  physiognomy  and  aspect  revealed  as 
much.  This  side  of  his  nature  became  very  apparent 
to  me  when  I  saw  him  '  en  grande  pompe'  on  his  Throne. 
You  know  the  popular  definition  of  a  Throne!  '  Four 
deal  boards  covered  with  a  little  velvet,  the  strength 
of  which  depends  on  who  occupies  it.'  I  think  that  the 
Throne  of  this  particular  young  Monarch  is  excessively 
solid,  and  he  proved  this  two  days  later,  when  he  broke 
like  a  pipe-stem  the  great  Chancellor,  reputed  all-pow- 
erful and  eternal! 

"On  the  gala  night  I  refer  to,  the  Empress  was  in 
deep  mourning.  The  Emperor  wore  a  White  Hussar's 
uniform,  but  he  was  in  parade  dress,  and  nobody  would 
then  have  mistaken  him  for  a  mere  lieutenant ;  under  his 
arm  he  carried  a  fur-bordered  kalpak,  surmounted  by  a 
tall  'aigrette'  attached  by  an  immense  diamond.  His 
breast  was  covered  with  magnificent  decorations  from 
every  corner  of  the  globe.  It  was  indeed  an  Emperor 
whom  we  had  before  us,  immobile,  impassive,  severe, 
and,  as  Saint-Simon  would  have  said,  'tripping  for  no 
one!' 

"Before  I  go  any  further  I  must  tell  you  how  he 
speaks  French !  Easily?  Very  easily.  Correctly?  Very 
correctly !  Had  he  the  slightest  accent  ?  Not  the  very 

190 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

slightest!  Of  us  two  it  was  he  who  spoke  the  better, 
for  I  have  a  slight  provincial  accent,  while  the  Emperor 
spoke  like  a  Parisian.  He  asked  me  once,  laughingly, 
what  I  thought  of  his  pronunciation.  'You  speak,'  I 
replied,  'like  a  Parisian.'  'That's  not  surprising,'  quoth 
he.  'I  have  a  friend ' — he  always  speaks  of  his  servitors 
as  'friends' — 'who  was  my  professor  during  ten  years, 
and  who  has  remained  here  with  me  ever  since.  He  is 
a  Parisian  and  a  purist.  Have  you  noticed  whether 
I  ever  use  an  unorthodox  expression?'  (I  am  nbt  only 
an  Academician  but  a  member  of  the  Dictionary  Com- 
mission.) 

'"Once/  I  said. 

"He  took  alarm. 

"'When?'  queried  he. 

"When  Your  Majesty,  in  describing  the  little  private 
receptions,  said  "to  tipple"  '  (pom  godailler). 

"'Godailler  is  French!'  he  cried,  triumphantly;  'it 
is  in  the  Academic  dictionary!' 

"It  is  French,  but  it  is  not  used  by  the  Academy, 
nor  in  Academical  Salons!' 

"I  will  not  forget!     And  was  that  instance  the  only 
one?' 

"I  swear  it!     Your  Majesty  is  also  a  purist.' 

"This  seemed  to  please  him  hugely,  and  he  allowed 
me  to  see  that  he  possesses  a  deep  knowledge  of  our 
literature.  As  I  was  aware  that  he  keeps  himself  posted 
about  every  detail  concerning  the  government  of  his 
vast  dominions,  of  his  army  and  of  his  navy,  and  as  I 
now  had  personally  been  enabled  to  judge  how  extraor- 
dinarily busy  is  his  life,  I  wondered  how  he  could  find 
time  to  read  French  novels.  He  explained  to  me,  how- 
ever, that  nothing  pleased  him  more  than  to  remain 
quietly  at  home  in  the  evening  with  his  wife,  and  that 
his  invariable  rule  was  to  read  a  few  chapters  of  some 

191 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

good  foreign  novel  to  her  every  night  before  retiring. 
This  wonderful  man,  who  assimilates  everything  with 
magical  swiftness,  never  loses  a  minute.  His  greatest 
antipathy  in  French  literature  is  Zola. 

"Out  of  patriotism  I  tried  to  defend  my  fellow-citizen 
by  saying  that  he  possessed  incomparable  diction  and 
power  of  observation. 

'Yes,  he  has  qualities,'  retorted  the  Emperor,  'but 
it  is  not  that  which  made  his  success — that  comes  from 
the  filth  and  villainies  with  which  he  poisons  his  writings. 
That  is  just  what  gives  outsiders  the  right  to  judge 
severely  the  moral  state  of  France  at  the  present  mo- 
ment.' 

' '  I  am  told  that  Zola  is  going  to  publish  a  new  book,' 
he  continued.  'You  shall  see  how  it  will  be  devoured; 
all  your  splendid  literature  will  disappear  before  this 
sorry  "chef  d'&uvre!'" 

"I  hazarded  that  it  would  also  be  read  in  Berlin. 

" '  Yes,  I  dare  say,  but  with  disgust,  and  to  a  far  lesser 
degree.  In  Paris  it  will  be  in  everybody's  hands!'  was 
the  answer. 

"In  this  he  was  not  quite  correct,  for  having  had  the 
curiosity  to  stroll  round  next  morning  to  some  of  the 
chief  bookseller's  shops,  I  found  that  Zola's  books  were 
to  be  found  there  in  quantities,  and  I  heard  later  that 
his  vogue  was  yet  greater  in  London. 

"I  would  have  given  much  to  coax  from  the  Emperor 
some  few  political  opinions,  but  all  my  efforts  in  that 
direction  were  vain,  and  the  cleverness  with  which  he 
evaded  me  on  that  particular  field  filled  me  with  ad- 
miration. I  succeeded,  however,  after  many  repeated 
and  Machiavellian  attacks  in  wrenching  from  him  two 
sentences  which  I  heard  with  pleasure.  We  were  talk- 
ing about  war  in  the  abstract. 

"'I  have  thought  a  great  deal  on  that  subject  since 

192 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

my  accession,'  said  he,  musingly,  'and  I  am  certain 
that  in  my  position  it  is  better  to  do  good  to  humanity 
than  to  try  to  terrify  it!'  and  as  I  sought  to  narrow  the 
question  down,  alluding  to  a  possible  war  between  our 
respective  countries,  he  added,  'I  speak  with  absolute 
impartiality;  your  army  has  worked  hard,  has  made 
amazing  progress;  it  is  ready,  and  if  by  an  evil  chance 
there  was  a  war  between  France  and  Germany,  it  would 
be  difficult  to  predict  the  consequences  and  result  of 
such  a  struggle.  That  is  why  I  would  consider  any- 
body who  egged  them  on  to  attack  each  other  as  a  mad- 
man or  a  criminal.' 

"The  Emperor's  sincerity  could  not  be  doubted.  His 
words  betrayed  a  well-seasoned  and  serious  conviction. 
He  really  desires  peace  and  intends  to  maintain  it  as 
far  as  lies  in  his  power.  Moreover,  William  II.  has 
already  given  several  instances  of  his  desire  to  be  on 
friendly  terms  with  France.  The  present  Congress,  to 
which  I  was  invited,  together  with  my  friends,  Burdeau 
and  Tolain,  is  one  of  them,  and  many  more  important 
ones  could  be  cited. 

"He  was  less  reticent  on  socialistic  questions,  and  on 
that  ground  I  felt  that  I  had  a  right  to  be  inquisitive, 
since  it  was  the  object  of  my  presence  in  Berlin  to  go  over 
it  thoroughly.  I  am  at  liberty  to  say  that  he  had  made 
a  very  conscientious  study  of  the  subject.  The  keen 
statesman,  far  more  than  the  mere  philanthrope,  spoke 
in  him  when  discussing  it,  and  he  put  before  me  the 
growing  anxiety  which  so  grave  a  danger  aroused  in 
him.  I,  who  am  far  more  than  anxious  about  it,  con- 
fided to  him  that  it  would  be  a  good  fear  to  be  more 
afraid  of  socialism  in  order  to  take  stronger  repressive 
measures,  and  he,  with  a  smile,  told  me  quite  frankly 
that  he  was  afraid  that  for  the  moment,  at  least,  the 
present  Congress,  from  which  he  had  hoped  so 

193 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

much,  would  not  prove  as  successful  as  he  had  ex- 
pected. 

' '  The  session  of  the  Congress  coincided  with  the  great- 
est historical  event  of  the  German  Empire.  When  we 
arrived  in  Berlin,  M.  de  Bismarck  was  threatened  but 
still  powerful;  it  was  rumored  that  the  Emperor  would 
ultimately  ask  him  to  resign,  but  that  as  yet  he  did  not 
dare  to  do  so.  Nevertheless,  he  provoked  the  great 
man's  offer  of  resignation,  accepted  and  maintained  it, 
all  within  twenty-four  hours.  At  once  the  Chancellor 
was  replaced  and  left  Berlin.  The  French  delegates 
dined  at  his  house  on  the  very  eve  of  his  fall,  and  I  was 
enabled  to  talk  at  length  with  him.  He  was  then  still 
full  of  confidence. 

"As  to  the  Emperor,  the  way  in  which  he  comported 
himself  at  that  moment  is  typical.  It  was  clear  that 
he  was  not  inclined  to  recognize  the  possibility  of  diffi- 
culties in  his  path;  he  knew,  evidently,  exactly  where  he 
was  going;  he  had  determined  to  govern  alone  and  as- 
sumed the  crushing  responsibility  without  wincing,  and 
the  iron  influence  of  the  Emperor  upon  his  capital  was 
curious  to  behold.  The  name  of  General  von  Capri vi 
as  Bismarck's  successor  was  mentioned  and  created  a 
sensation,  for  he  was  neither  a  politician  nor  a  courtier, 
merely  a  good  soldier.  When  it  became  known  that 
the  Emperor  had  selected  him,  nobody  would  at  first 
believe  it,  especially  when  he  was  seen  that  very  night 
eating  his  dinner  quite  alone  at  a  little  table  in  the 
public  dining-room  of  the  Kaiserhof.  The  news  that 
the  Emperor  had  conferred  upon  Prince  Bismarck  the 
almost  Royal  dignity  of  Duke  of  Lauenburg,  was  also 
at  first  met  with  incredulity,  and  a  great  lady  upon 
whom  I  was  calling,  exclaimed,  impulsively,  'I  hope 
he  will  refuse!'  then  hung  her  head  and  appeared  to  re- 
gret her  words.  Meanwhile  the  fallen  Chancellor  was 

194 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

walking  slowly  up  and  down  in  his  garden  of  the  Wil- 
helmstrasse,  quite  alone  and  abandoned,  save  by  two 
huge  Ulmer  dogs,  his  constant  companions.  It  was 
pitiful,  and  as  I  watched  him  from  the  windows  of 
our  Congress-room,  I  felt  that  this  neglect  must  have 
hurt  him  even  more  than  his  disgrace. 

"A  lightning  change  took  place,  however,  and  that 
with  quite  fairy-like  splendor,  at  the  moment  of  Bis- 
marck's departure.  The  Berlinese  turned  out  'en 
masse,'  thronging  the  Wilhelmstrasse  and  all  the  neigh- 
boring thoroughfares,  crowding  even  the  great  'Unter 
den  Linden'  until  traffic  became  absolutely  blocked, 
and  the  ex-Chancellor  entered  his  carriage  amid  the 
frenzied  hurrahs  of  thousands  upon  thousands.  Dur- 
ing a  long  time  his  horses  could  not  advance,  while 
flowers  fell  like  an  avalanche  about  his  feet  and  filled 
the  carriage.  The  Man  of  Iron  was  crying!  Indeed, 
the  multitude  followed  him  right  to  the  station,  where 
his  train  had  been  waiting  under  full  steam  since  two 
hours. 

"What  was  the  cause  of  this  amazing  change  in  the 
popular  attitude  ?  Simply  the  Emperor's  will.  He  had 
expressed  a  desire  that  all  honor  should  be  done  to 
Bismarck,  and  two  millions  of  people  had  responded  to 
this  appeal.  '  Voila  tout!'  and  I  may  add  that  not  even 
the  great  Czar  could  have  testified  to  such  an  intensity 
of  influence  over  his  subjects. 

"I  trust  that  in  these  short  and  incomplete  notes  my 
memory  has  not  betrayed  me.  I  trust  that  I  have  been 
exact.  The  Emperor's  attitude  with  regard  to  France 
has  been  benevolence  itself.  His  message  to  Madame 
Carnot  at  the  time  of  her  illustrious  husband's  assassina- 
tion has  created  a  deep  impression  throughout  my 
country.  At  the  very  moment  when  the  melancholy 
and  splendid  funeral  cortege  was  leaving  for  Notre- 

'95 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

Dame  and  the  Panthe'on,  M.  de  Minister,  German  Am- 
bassador to  Paris,  advised  our  Government  that  his 
Imperial  Master  had  granted  their  pardon  to  two 
French  officers  condemned,  one  to  six  and  the  other  to 
four  years  of  incarceration  in  a  German  fortress,  and 
when  the  thanks  of  the  President  of  the  Republic  reached 
the  Emperor  the  two  prisoners  were  already  at  large. 
Therefore,  M.  Carnot's  funeral  will  in  history  be  remem- 
bered quite  especially  as  having  provoked  the  first  real 
flash  of  sympathy  between  Germany  and  France.  May 
it  be  a  lasting  truce — 'the  truce  of  God!' 

(Signed)  "  JULES  SIMON." 

In  my  translation  of  the  above  I  have  purposely  re- 
tained what  one  may  term  the  republican  simplicity 
of  phrase,  and  the  short-sentenced  chattiness  which  is 
all  very  well  in  French,  but  in  English  seems  somewhat 
bald,  because  I  am  of  opinion  that  the  "  couleur -locale  " 
of  M.  Jules  Simon's  style  adds  to  the  force  of  this  short 
but  pithy  and  veracious  instantaneous  portrayal. 

The  wave  of  enthusiasm  which  had  unfurled  itself 
about  Bismarck  on  the  day  of  his  departure  from  Berlin 
was  succeeded  by  silence.  As  he  himself  said,  bitterly, 
he  was  for  a  long  time  subjected  to  a  sort  of  boycott! 
Formerly  he  had  experienced  great  difficulty  in  keep- 
ing people  away  from  his  country-seat  of  Friedrichsruh, 
for  everybody  strove  to  pay  court  to  him,  or — to  state 
again  his  own  words — "  everybody  who  wanted  his  good- 
will came  in  regular  processions  of  humble,  bowing  vis- 
itors," but  after  his  downfall  he  was  left  in  galling  and 
insulting  solitude. 

This  situation  was  far  from  inducing  a  resigned  or 
philanthropic  state  of  mind;  indeed,  his  vituperations 
against  the  Emperor  and  his  Government,  whenever 
he  managed  to  secure  a  hearer,  were,  to  say  the  least, 

196 


THE    EMPEROR    "  CROSS-COUNTRY    RIDING" 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

extraordinarily  embarrassing.  Nothing  was  farther 
from  his  mind  than  such  sentimentality  as  grief;  he  had 
never  been  given  to  such  soft  weakness,  this  hard- 
hearted old  warrior,  and  rage  reigned  supreme.  When 
he  had  ruled  he  had  done  so  with  a  rod  of  iron.  His 
purpose  had  ever  been  inflexible  and  his  self-control 
great,  but  William  was  the  only  person  who  had  ever 
openly  opposed  him,  and,  somehow,  the  pill  he  had  been 
forced  to  swallow,  in  spite  of  its  thickly  gilded  coating, 
was  insupportably  bitter. 

In  fact,  the  very  gilding  contrived  to  give  offence. 
He  had  long  desired  to  be  made  Duke  of  Lauenburg — 
an  old  title  appertaining  to  the  House  of  Schleswig-Hol- 
stein — with  the  rank  of  a  Sovereign,  or,  at  least,  Media- 
tized Prince;  but  Emperor  William  I.  could  not  see  his 
way  to  granting  this  desire,  since  it  was  not  a  matter 
to  be  settled  entirely  by  his  own  volition.  As  the  Head 
of  an  Empire  made  up  of  Allied  Sovereigns,  and  con- 
taining many  Princes  who  had  saved  little  from  the 
wreck  of  the  Napoleonic  wars  beyond  the  bare  recog- 
nition of  their  rank,  and  who  were,  therefore,  not  a  lit- 
tle jealous  of  it,  he  had  to  request  the  sanction  of  his 
brother  Rulers  for  the  project,  with  an  almost  absolute 
certainty  that  it  would  be  refused. 

When,  therefore,  Emperor  William  II.  made  him 
Duke  of  Lauenburg,  pure  and  simple,  without  any  of 
the  semi-royal  prerogatives  for  which  he  longed,  the  old 
man  was  deeply  incensed.  This  meant,  among  other 
things,  that  on  all  State  occasions  at  Court  there  were  still 
some  dozens  of  infinitesimal  titular  Princelets,  of  whom 
nobody  ever  hears,  who  would,  nevertheless,  take  pre- 
cedence of  himself,  one  of  the  most  famous  men  in  the 
world.  Not  only  did  he,  therefore,  ignore  the  Emperor's 
gift,  and  neglect  to  pay  the  duties  accruing  to  the  State 
on  an  accession  to  a  title,  but  he  deliberately  returned  to 

197 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

the  post-office  all  mail  that  arrived  addressed  to  the 
' '  Duke  of  Lauenburg ' ' — certainly  rather  small  conduct 
for  so  great  a  man,  who,  starting  in  life  poor  and 
loaded  with  debt,  had  been  showered  with  honors  and 
rendered  one  of  the  wealthiest  nobles  in  Germany  by 
the  masters  he  had  served.  And,  as  if  in  his  life- 
time he  had  not  showed  sufficient  resentment,  after  the 
old  Prince's  death  the  opportunity  given  to  his  son 
and  successor  to  pay  the  dues  and  formally  assume 
the  title  was  coolly  disregarded,  so  that  the  Emperor 
was  obliged  to  resume  his  gift,  and  to  formally  declare 
that  the  Dukedom  of  Lauenburg  had  lapsed. 

Somehow,  the  collapse  of  all  his  ambitions,  political 
and  otherwise,  affected  the  ex-Chancellor  physically, 
and  increased  the  rheumatism  and  neuralgia  from  which 
he  suffered  so  severely  that  he  was  now  forced  to  be 
constantly  under  medical  supervision. 

Henry  Villard,  who  visited  him  at  Friedrichsruh  some 
time  after  his  enforced  retirement,  wrote  when  describ- 
ing this  short  and  interesting  stay  in  the  " Sachs enw aid," 
that  never  in  his  whole  experience  did  he  encounter  such 
a  flow  of  keen  wit,  cutting  sarcasm,  bitter  denunciation, 
and  mad  diatribe  as  that  used  by  Bismarck  in  speaking 
of  his  downfall. 

"Some  of  the  sayings  I  heard  then,"  writes  Villard, 
"were  so  extraordinary  that  if  they  were  repeated  their 
reality  would  probably  be  doubted,  and  certainly  the 
Tese  majeste'  they  involve  would  render  it  unsafe  for 
me  to  venture  again  on  German  soil.  The  Prince's 
countenance,"  he  continues,  "during  the  excited  de- 
livery of  those  philippics,  was  a  study!  The  working  of 
every  vein  and  muscle  of  the  face  showed  his  intense 
feelings.  The  play  of  his  great  eyebrows  was  also 
very  remarkable,  so  was  the  flashing  of  his  eyes.  They 
seemed  incapable  of  expressing  affection,  and  their  steel- 

198 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

like  hardness  only  inspired  awe.  To  watch  the  lightning 
changes  of  expression  mirrored  in  them,  reflecting  the 
strong  emotion  evoked  by  humbled  pride,  wounded  am- 
bition, and  thwarted  selfishness,  and  above  all  by  the 
loss  of  his  absolute  sway,  was  indeed  an  enviable  privi- 
lege. I  left  Bismarck  with  the  fixed  impression  that 
the  Prince  never  would  or  could  forget  or  forgive  those 
who  caused  his  compulsory  abdication  from  power,  that 
he  felt  nothing  less  than  implacable  hatred  towards  them, 
that  any  apparent  reconciliation  on  the  Prince's  part  to 
the  new  regime  that  might  follow  would  be  only  a  stage- 
show  and  not  a  reality,  that  his  thirst  for  revenge  would 
not  be  quenched  as  long  as  he  lived,  and  that  he  would 
improve  every  opportunity  to  gratify  it." 

The  young  Emperor  knew  all  this  well,  for  Henry 
Villard  was  by  no  means  the  only  person  to  whom  Bis- 
marck spoke  in  that  strain,  and  it  must  be  confessed 
that  it  took  a  singularly  generous  breadth  of  soul  for 
him  to  have  not  only  forgiven  so  aggressive  an  attitude, 
but  to  have  unfailingly  displayed  even  then  towards 
the  infuriated  old  man,  a  respect  and  an  affectionate 
courtesy  which  this  lion  with  filed  teeth  and  claws  did 
all  within  his  power  to  forfeit. 

The  recluse  of  Friedrichsruh  could  not  assimilate  the 
idea  of  the  German  Empire  continuing  to  exist  without 
him.  He  had  so  accustomed  everybody  to  tke  idea 
that  he  alone  insured  its  safe  continuance  that  he  had 
ended  by  believing  this  to  be  the  actual  truth.  But 
when  he  found  that  nothing  untoward  happened,  that, 
indeed,  the  German  Empire  had  never  been  more  pros- 
perous and  peaceful  than  since  he,  Bismarck,  had  been 
relieved  of  his  watch  on  deck ;  when,  especially,  he  could 
no  longer  doubt  that  a  new  era  of  prosperity,  calm,  and 
absence  of  friction  had  begun,  and  that  the  country  was 
now  in  hands  more  capable  than  his  own,  his  fury  knew 

199 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

bounds  no  longer,  and,  blinded  by  rage,  he  belittled  him- 
self most  lamentably  in  the  eyes  of  the  world  by  his 
open  and  vociferous  threats,  his  so-called  revelations, 
and  his  reckless  but  persistent  incitements  to  schism. 

Under  all  this  insupportable  provocation,  William 
acted  with  a  fortitude  and  a  generosity  which  even  his 
worst  detractors  cannot  deny,  for  he  steadfastly  de- 
clined to  sanction  the  slightest  movement  towards  re- 
prisals, treated  covert  insults  and  open  insolence  and 
affronts  with  serene  indifference,  and  never  by  word 
or  deed  gave  anybody  the  chance  to  see  how  deeply  he 
was  hurt. 

Nor  did  his  irresistible  will,  his  defiant  courage,  or 
his  fiery  energy  suffer  any  dimming  by  all  he  had  then 
to  undergo,  while  his  calm  remained  quite  unbroken. 
Outwardly  unmoved,  he  watched  the  wild,  unreasoning 
passion  of  the  man  he  had  just  raised  to  so  great  estate 
wreak  its  worst,  and  not  a  finger  did  he  lift  to  justify 
himself  of  the  truly  insane  accusations  launched  both 
privately  and  publicly  at  his  head. 

Three  years  later  continued  rage  and  mortification 
culminated  in  a  serious  attack  of  illness,  which  very 
nearly  carried  the  old  Prince  off  for  good  and  all.  He 
could  not  have  selected — had  he  wished  to  do  so — a  surer 
manner  of  bringing  about  an  offer  of  reconciliation  from 
his  Sovereign,  for  no  sooner  did  the  Emperor  hear  of 
his  critical  condition  than  he  hastened  to  hold  out 
both  hands  to  him,  entreated  him  to  accept  one  of  the 
Royal  palaces  wherein  to  go  and  recuperate,  and  show- 
ered innumerable  kindnesses  and  attentions  upon  him. 
All  these  warm-hearted  advances  and  offers  were,  how- 
ever, met  with  cold  and  formal  rejection,  and  very  few 
words  were  wasted  on  Bismarck's  part  over  social  con- 
ventions and  courtly  etiquette. 

These  two  men  had  together  witnessed  strange  events ; 

200 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

they  had  acted  in  concert,  they  had  acted  in  direct  op- 
position ;  the  Emperor  had  broken  Bismarck  like  a  twig 
and  Bismarck  had  spitefully  revenged  himself;  and  now, 
by  a  turn  of  the  wheel,  they  were  soon  to  find  themselves 
face  to  face  again,  for  when,  in  January,  1894,  William 
II.  celebrated  at  one  and  the  same  time  his  thirty-fifth 
birthday  and  the  twenty -fifth  anniversary  of  his  ad- 
mission to  the  army,  he  wrote  a  graciously  worded 
"manu-propria"  letter  to  Bismarck,  in  which  he  said 
that  the  Prince  had  tarried  in  seclusion  long  enough — 
too  long,  longer  than  he,  the  Emperor,  would  have 
wished  him  to  do,  and  invited  him  in  the  warmest  and 
most  affectionate  fashion  to  come  to  Berlin  for  the  cele- 
bration. This  letter  was  carried  to  Friedrichsruh  by 
an  Imperial  aide-de-camp,  and  very  sulkily  the  in- 
wardly flattered  old  man  consented  at  last  to  accept 
his  Sovereign's  invitation. 

Hatred,  contempt,  bitterness,  were  thrust  out  of 
sight  when  the  Prince,  carrying  high  his  bluff  head, 
which,  however,  so  clearly  bespoke  the  storms  still 
raging  within,  met  Prince  Henry,  who  had  been  sent 
by  his  Imperial  brother  to  escort  him,  for  even  his  hard 
heart  could  not  but  be  touched,  after  a  fashion,  by  the 
magnanimity  displayed  towards  him. 

Everything  which  could  possibly  be  done  to  show 
him  respect  was  done,  all  Berlin  cheered  him,  and  he 
must  have  been  indeed  difficult  to  satisfy  had  he 
discovered  something  lacking  in  this  magnificent  recep- 
tion. He  had,  however,  been  so  permanently  ruffled 
by  the  swift  disappearance  of  the  obsequious  crowds, 
when  his  power  had  been  wiped  away  like  writing  off 
a  slate,  that  nothing  could  ever  quite  soothe  him  again. 
He  had  not  possessed  a  sufficiency  of  moral  pluck  to  avoid 
playing  a  hopeless  game,  and  employing  cunning  and 
spite  as  his  last  weapons.  He  knew  that  he  had  been 

201 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

Unworthy  of  his  old  self,  and  as  he  re-entered  the  capi- 
tal, after  so  many  years'  absence,  he  glanced  at  the  peo- 
ple in  the  streets  curiously  and  sarcastically  beneath 
his  shaggy  eyebrows.  But  when  he  met  the  Emperor 
he  grew  pale  to  the  lips. 

Never  had  William  appeared  to  better  advantage  than 
on  that  occasion.  There  was  a  simple  directness  in  his 
manner  which  conveyed  the  impression  of  purpose  and 
of  the  habit  of  going  straight  to  the  point,  very  discon- 
certing to  the  ulcerated  rancor  of  his  guest.  The  Em- 
peror did  not  rush  into  conversation  with  him,  yet  his 
silence  had  no  embarrassment  in  it;  and  when,  at  last, 
he  spoke,  it  was  with  so  much  feeling,  quiet  dignity, 
and  almost  filially  forgiving  affection  that  the  wonder 
in  the  Prince's  eyes  deepened,  and  the  embarrassment 
was  his. 

The  meeting  created  an  immense  sensation.  Bis- 
marck was  a  man  of  whom  people  had  spoken  contin- 
ually for  many,  many  years.  Two  generations  had 
found  him  a  fruitful  topic  of  conversation,  without,  it 
is  true,  greatly  increasing  their  real  knowledge  of  him, 
for  he  had  always  been  and  would  always  remain  an 
unknown  quantity;  in  one  word,  he  had  been  typically 
the  person  from  whom  one  expects  something  invari- 
ably surprising.  But  what  aroused  the  unfeigned  and 
spontaneous  enthusiasm  of  the  nation  was  the  Em- 
peror's magnanimity,  his  extraordinary  self-control,  the 
delicacy  which  prompted  this  conciliatory  invitation, 
and  the  greatness  of  a  soul  capable  of  putting  aside  all 
personal  feeling  and  all  personal  resentment,  in  order 
to  honor  and  recognize,  in  spite  of  all  that  had  passed 
since,  the  great  services  that  had  been  rendered  by  this 
harsh,  veteran  statesman. 

The  ovations  of  which  William,  therefore,  became  the 
subject,  during  Bismarck's  stay  in  Berlin,  were  some- 

202 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

thing  quite  unheard  of  in  the  annals  of  a  calm  and  pon- 
derous people,  and  surprised  as  well  as  touched  their 
Sovereign  profoundly.  Never  had  such  cheers  met  his 
ear,  never  had  such  glowing,  loyal  eyes  gazed  up  at 
him,  never  had  his  good  Berlinese  shouted  themselves 
so  abominably  hoarse!  The  following  quatrain  sung 
throughout  the  city  then  may  give  a  feeble  idea  of 
what  was  singing  in  every  heart: 

"Heil,  Wilhelm,  Dir  und  Segen! 

Das  hast  du  gut  gemacht: 
Auf  alien  deinen  Wegen, 
Dir  sei  ein  Hoch  gebracht!" 

14 


CHAPTER  IX 

EMPEROR  WILLIAM'S  fondness  for  travelling  is  well 
known.  Indeed,  there  is  no  doubt  that  if,  instead  of 
being  Germany's  Sovereign  Lord,  the  life  of  a  mere  pri- 
vate gentleman  of  ample  means  had  fallen  to  his  share,  he 
would  have  been  an  inveterate  globe-trotter.  As  it  is, 
since  he  has  ascended  the  Throne  he  has  covered  more 
miles  by  land  and  water  than  any  of  his  brother  Sov- 
ereigns, even  those  old  enough  to  be  grandfathers  to 
him. 

He  had  been  on  the  Throne  for  less  than  four  weeks 
when  he  started  off  from  his  capital  to  pay  a  state  visit 
to  Czar  Alexander  III.;  thence  he  went  to  Denmark, 
Sweden  and  Norway,  and  a  little  later  to  Austria  and 
Italy. 

This  was  all  done  in  1888.  In  1889,  the  young  Em- 
peror expressed  a  desire  to  see  more  of  Norway,  that 
land  of  long,  silent  twilights,  bare  crags,  and  mysterious 
fjords,  where,  comparatively  speaking,  so  few  journey. 
For  the  Emperor,  as  for  that  select  number  of  people 
who  admire  nature  even  in  her  grimmest  moods  and 
under  her  gauntest  aspect,  Norway  has  an  irresistible 
attraction.  He  had  been  enchanted  by  his  first  short 
sojourn  there,  and  had  by  no  means  gazed  his  fill  at  the 
gray,  hopeless  cliffs,  rising  thousands  of  abrupt  feet  from 
the  cold,  transparent  blue  water,  lapping  their  bases 
with  scarcely  a  ripple  of  its  chilling  silkiness ;  at  the  dis- 
tant snow-clad  mountains  glowing  like  pale  phosphores- 
cent rubies  in  the  vague  light  of  the  midnight  sun ;  or 

204 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

the  deep,  gloomy  gorges  enclosing  narrow  borders  of 
sombre  pine  and  silver-birch,  that  harmoniously  min- 
gle their  heterogeneous  branches;  or,  in  short,  at  all  that 
goes  so  far  to  make  up  the  peculiarly  stern  charm  of 
this  lonely  corner  of  the  world. 

Therefore,  as  soon  as  spring  had  given  place  to  early 
summer,  the  Imperial  yacht  " Hohenzollern"  left  Kiel, 
to  convey  for  the  first  time  a  German  Emperor  to  the 
confines  of  Europe  and  the  sad-hued  shores  of  the  Polar 
Sea. 

Few  steamers  ever  churned  the  still,  icy  waters  where 
the  "Hohenzollern"  ventured;  certainly  none  of  such 
exquisite  neatness  and  elegance  as  that  Imperial  toy, 
had  ever  cast  the  white-and-gold  reflections  of  immacu- 
late awnings  and  polished  copper  -  fittings,  across  the 
mirroring  shade  thrown  by  the  bleak  and  dismal  preci- 
pices of  that  chaotic  region.  But  William  II.  does  noth- 
ing superficially ;  he  had  determined  to  become  intimate- 
ly acquainted  with  Norway,  and  intimately  acquainted 
with  it  he  became. 

I  have  alluded  at  the  beginning  of  this  volume  to  the 
Emperor's  fondness  for  fishing.  As  soon  as  he  reached 
the  dreary  magnificence  of  the  fjords,  he  may  be  de- 
scribed as  having  lived  in  brogues,  wet  waders,  soaking 
outer-socks,  tweeds,  and  a  gray  cloth  hat  drawn  sharp- 
ly down  over  the  eyes.  Every  morning  with  untiring 
energy  and  unfailing  delight,  carrying  his  own  creel  and 
rod  like  the  true  sportsman  he  is,  he  sailed  in  a  cockle- 
shell of  a  dinghy  down  the  fjords  to  some  distant  trout- 
stream  or  boisterous  river,  bounding  noisily  towards 
the  silent  sea  over  cruel -toothed,  jutting  rocks,  or  tum- 
bling in  a  series  of  roaring  waterfalls  into  great  pools, 
which  it  roughened  and  clamorously  broke  into  menac- 
ing little  waves. 

No  weather  deterred  him,  and  even  when  the  sunshine, 

205 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

which  works  so  beautiful  a  transformation  in  Arctic  land- 
scapes, hid  its  countenance  behind  gray  palls  of  falling 
dampness  that  drew  a  gloomy  twilight  around  the 
glaciers,  he  invariably  went  off  in  the  highest  spirits  to 
pursue  the  treacherous  trout  -in  its  wellnigh  inaccessible 
haunts.  On  and  on,  regardless  of  peaty  pool  and  swift- 
tearing  brooklet,  he  followed  the  glistening,  scarcely  vis- 
ible track  leading  to  the  coveted  spots  where  the  fish 
lie  head  up-stream,  with  their  ravenous,  ferocious-look- 
ing mouths  half -open  to  chance  provender,  as  if  await- 
ing the  barbed  fly  attached  to  the  taut  Imperial  line. 

The  Emperor  was  enchanted.  Never  did  he  get  tired 
of  the  quick,  nervous  burr-r-r-r  of  the  reel,  of  the  sudden 
bending  of  the  rod  with  its  promise  of  an  extraordinary 
catch,  of  the  delicious  cosiness  of  the  "  Hohenzollern's" 
saloon  when,  tired  and  wet  through,  after  a  long  day's 
sport,  he  sat  down  to  dinner  at  the  luxuriously  fitted 
table  dazzlingly  set  with  snowy  napery,  bright  silver, 
fragrant  flowers,  and  sparkling  crystal,  and  which  form- 
ed so  pleasing  a  contrast  to  the  fine,  cold  rain  falling 
overhead  on  the  yacht's  white  decks,  or  the  freezing 
wind  of  the  polar  night  blowing  across  the  fjords. 

Yet  pleasure  was,  after  all, with  him  but  a  "  Nebensache" 
a  rare  oasis  within  a  desert  of  duty,  to  be  indulged  in 
but  seldom,  and  his  travels  have  always  had  a  more  im- 
portant aim  than  either  pleasure  or  political  interests. 
Indeed,  as  he  himself  wrote: 

"In  my  travels,  which  have,  perchance,  been  misin- 
terpreted, I  have  not  only  sought  to  visit  foreign  lands 
and  study  foreign  statesmanship,  or  to  cultivate  friendly 
relations  with  neighboring  realms,  but  having  recognized 
the  immense  value  of  the  perspective  which  distance 
lends  to  one's  view  of  party  feuds  and  party  prejudices, 
I  have  looked  upon  these  travels  as  necessary  periods  of 
rest,  during  which  I  am  enabled  to  put  many  things  to 

206 


STEERING    HIS    BOAT    IX    THE    FJORDS 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

the  proof.  Whoever  has  communed  with  himself  when 
alone  on  the  high  seas,  with  naught  but  God's  star- 
broidered  heavens  above,  cannot  be  blind  to  the  infinite 
worth  of  such  moments.  That  is  why  I  desired  to  live 
through  these  hours,  during  which  the  heart  can  seek 
its  own  counsel  and  the  mind  call  itself  to  account  for 
what  it  has  striven  to  accomplish,  and  the  way  in  which 
it  has  striven,  since  they  are  the  best  of  cures  for  over 
self-confidence,  and,  as  such,  a  benefit  to  any  human 
being." 

Norway  must  in  that  respect  have  been  absolutely 
perfect,  for  its  very  atmosphere  seems  so  impregnated 
with  a  sort  of  solemn  isolation,  that  nothing  can  ever 
tarnish  its  unworldliness.  In  the  extreme  purity  of  its 
air  anxious  doubts,  treacherous  feelings  of  one's  own 
worthlessness,  are  soon  laid  to  rest.  The  unreal,  strain- 
ed ways  of  civilization  are  left  far  behind,  and  when  a 
new  day  dawns  upon  the  land  that  has  known  no  night, 
when  the  great  snow -fields  peeping  above  the  rocky 
crags  which  border  the  shores,  begin  to  glow  with  the 
pearly  light  of  morning,  the  heart  and  soul  feel  astonish- 
ingly refreshed  by  the  crystalline  silence  of  the  hours 
of  sweet  repose  and  meditation,  which  have  just  closed. 

There,  far  away  from  railways  and  the  noise  of  haste 
and  traffic,  one  does  not  seem  to  long  for  the  busy  life 
of  great  cities,  and  quietude  soon  follows  on  excite- 
ment or  weariness  without  any  great  mental  effort  be- 
ing necessary. 

It  is  well  to  bear  in  mind  that  Emperor  William  II. 
was  already,  in  1889,  unusually  heavily  burdened.  In- 
deed, one  is  tempted  to  say  that  his  position  was  unique 
in  this  respect  for  a  man  of  his  age.  His  grasp  of  most 
subjects  was  extraordinarily  minute  and  profound.  In 
military  and  naval  matters  his  faculties,  for  instance, 
were  remarkable.  From  the  lock  of  a  rifle  to  the  con- 

207 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

struction  of  a  trench,  from  the  strap  of  a  campaigning 
saddle  and  the  details  of  a  treaty,  to  the  loading  and 
sponging  of  a  field-artillery  piece,  the  furling  of  a  sail, 
or  the  management  of  a  torpedo-boat,  the  extent  of  his 
knowledge  was  practically  unrivalled.  In  diplomacy 
and  statecraft  he  had  already  made  his  mark,  and  his 
slightest  word  and  action  had  been  dictated  by  motives 
that  had  their  birth  in  a  punctilious  sense  of  honor  and 
a  deep  and  scrupulous  uprightness. 

Truly  he  was  no  trifler,  but  went  right  to  the  very 
heart  of  everything  he  undertook,  with  a  completeness 
which  took  one's  breath  away.  Nor  had  the  sorrows 
and  trials  of  the  past  two  years  as  yet  faded  away  from 
his  remembrance.  He  was  outwardly  little  changed, 
but  the  wounds  inflicted  then  were  by  no  means  healed. 
No  doubt  the  great  healer,  Time,  would  yet  do  for  him 
what  it  does  more  or  less  for  all  of  us — but  it  was  still 
too  soon  for  that,  and  in  his  courage  he  seemed  to  take 
pride  and  pleasure  in  facing  untoward  difficulties,  in- 
deed, he  ordinarily  sought  them — but  during  this  first 
long  sojourn  in  Norway  he  gave  himself  leisure  at  last 
to  see  the  brighter  objects  of  his  life  stand  out  more 
firmly  and  brilliantly  against  the  sombre  veils  of  the 
past,  and  gazed  at  them  with  eyes  that  clearly  saw  and 
understood. 

Almost  every  year  since  then,  the  slim,  graceful  hull 
of  the  ' '  Hohenzollern  "  has  swung  into  view  of  the  silent, 
solitary  fjords,  whither  its  Imperial  owner  comes  in 
search  of  those  quiet  hours  which  are  a  medicine  to  his 
energetic,  busy,  tireless  spirit.  Then  old  questions  are 
brought  to  life  again,  unfinished  plans  are  reassumed, 
careful  "examens  de  conscience"  are  gone  through  in  a 
practical,  far-sighted  way,  and  the  kindly  heart  and  ac- 
tive spirit  commune  with  each  other  alone,  with  remark- 
ably good  results  for  the  welfare  of  William's  subjects, 

208 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

as  is  exemplified  by  the  many  things  that  are  accom- 
plished when  he  returns,  buoyant  and  strengthened  in 
body  and  mind,  and  with  an  ever  wider  and  braver 
conception  of  life. 

In  ordinary  times  William  II.  has  a  strange  trick  of 
lapsing  into  sudden  stony  silences,  invariably  followed 
by  the  raising  of  some  deep,  abstract  question,  or  the 
solution  of  some  difficulty  of  more  than  usual  magni- 
tude. There  is  a  strange  mixture  of  strength  and  gentle- 
ness, courage  and  resignation,  indefatigable  energy  and 
brooding  philosophy  at  play  during  those  silent  mo- 
ments, which  is  utterly  incomprehensible  to  most,  but 
well  known  to  a  very  few. 

Of  course,  the  Emperor's  rapid  journeys  from  one 
end  of  Europe  to  the  other  caused  much  comment  of 
an  ill-natured  character.  Other  Monarchs  stayed  at 
home,  why  did  not  he?  What  need  was  there  of  his 
flying  about  like  a  Cabinets-Courier  or  a  commercial 
traveller,  desecrating  his  lofty  functions  by  actually 
signing  State  papers  and  Imperial  documents  in  a  rail- 
way -  carriage  swallowing  up  seventy  miles  an  hour  ? 
Such  restlessness  was  surely  on  a  par  with  his  usual  ec- 
centricities! Was  he  in  a  fair  way  to  become  irretriev- 
ably "non  compos  mentis"  ?  Such  a  love  of  excitement 
was  decidedly  a  very  grave  sign  of  mental  perturbation, 
and  should  be  checked  if  possible.  This  was  the  clear 
and  decisive  view  taken  by  the  public  of  these  Imperial 
journeys,  and  was  expressed  with  a  half-pitying,  half- 
contemptuous,  and  wholly  alarmed  jerk  of  the  head  or 
the  pen. 

The  trouble  was  that  His  Majesty  William  II.  cer- 
tainly left  a  great  deal  unsaid  about  his  travels,  which 
this  babbling  world  of  ours  expected  him  to  confide  to 
it.  And  being  disappointed,  it  naturally  revenged  itself! 

One  self-deception  leads  to  another,  and  when  it  be- 

209 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

came  known,  some  years  later,  that  Germany's  Emperor 
was  about  to  undertake  a  trip  to  Palestine,  the  world 
found  itself  enriched  by  the  full  and  perfect  conviction 
that  a  spectacular  pageant  of  a  religious  and  devotional 
character  was  the  Sovereign's  chief  object.  Indeed,  a 
great  many  very  remarkable  articles  appeared  in  the 
foreign  press  dealing  with  the  "Protestant  Pope  William  " 
and  his  ambitions,  with  a  free-and-easy  display  of  igno- 
rance which  was  intensely  refreshing.  It  is  a  well-known 
fact  that  for  the  press  it  is  always  clear  light,  whatever 
the  time  of  day  or  night,  winter  or  summer,  peace  or 
war,  thanks  to  an  unsparing  use  of  imagination.  There 
is  no  fear  of  its  readers  being  left  behind  the  times.  On 
the  contrary,  they  —  for  the  trifling  expenditure  of  a 
small  coin  or  two — are  always  carried  far  ahead  even  of 
probabilities. 

Emperor  William  was  going  to  Jerusalem  via  Constan- 
tinople— this  was  strictly  true — but  he  was  supposed  to 
conceal  under  this  after  all  perfectly  harmless  and 
natural  desire  of  visiting  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  a  more 
than  insatiable  ambition.  This  was  not  true  at  all,  and 
in  this  instance  the  "revelations"  of  the  press  were  not 
markedly  convincing.  They  cannot  always  be  that! 
At  any  rate,  the  public  was  justified  in  believing  that 
the  "pretext"  of  the  voyage — the  consecration  of  the 
" Heiland's  Kirche"  at  Jerusalem — was  correctly  stated, 
for  the  Emperor  was  really  going  to  be  present  at  that 
ceremony. 

Jerusalem!  A  magical  word,  which  conjures  up  vi- 
sions of  a  glorious  past,  unchanging  for  centuries,  a  word 
which  appeals  to  one's  imagination,  makes  one  dream 
of  the  dim,  mysterious  light  of  great  silent  temples,  and 
fills  one's  soul  with  an  overwhelming  feeling  of  awe  and 
of  wonder — Jerusalem!  which  "civilization"  with  its 
dreary  procession  of  empty-headed,  chattering  tourists, 

210 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

its  levelling  theories,  its  noise  and  its  ghastly  search  after 
improvement,  has,  of  late  years,  touched  with  sacri- 
legious fingers. 

Judge  what  Emperor  William's  feelings  must  have  been 
when  he  stood  before  this  grand  old  city,  this  splendid 
relic  of  the  immemorial  past,  and  realized  that,  as  far 
as  was  feasible,  all  the  remaining  "couleur  locale"  had 
been  rubbed  off  to  do  him  honor! 

Grand  and  terrible  was  the  old  Jerusalem,  impressive 
and  mystical  the  untouched  portions  of  it  are  yet  to 
those  who  wander  there  alone  and  stumble  by  chance, 
as  it  were,  upon  what  is  left  intact.  But  it  must  have 
been  a  bitter  disappointment  to  travel  all  the  way  from 
Germany  in  order  to  inhale  the  spirit  of  long  ago,  and  to 
find  that  the  great  gateways,  the  tortuous,  dark  lanes, 
the  gaunt,  crumbling  thoroughfares,  and  narrow  "che- 
mins-de-ronde"  draped  in  golden  lichens,  had  alike  been 
emptied  of  their  customary  denizens,  that  the  pictu- 
resque forms  of  Arab,  Jew,  negro,  and  Levantine,  clad  in 
the  artistic  tangle  of  multicolored  rags  or  the  magnifi- 
cence of  Oriental  costumes,  had  been  swept  from  the 
paths  where  they  wend  all  day  and  all  night  their  shroud- 
ed way,  and  the  grim  old  city  purged  of  all  its  character 
in  order  to  make  room  for  the  Imperial  cortege. 

Europe  seemed  to  the  Emperor  very  far  distant,  as 
together  with  the  Empress  he  landed  at  Haifa ;  the  echo 
of  its  shrill  clamor  had  died  away  upon  the  oily  blue 
waves  he  was  leaving  behind,  the  hurry  of  its  conflicts, 
the  fuss  of  its  restless  inhabitants  could  be  forgotten  for 
a  time,  and  now  he,  the  great  Sovereign  who  had  trav- 
elled so  many  miles  to  worship  at  the  Saviour's  tomb, 
would  be  able  to  plunge  himself  heart  and  soul  into  an 
epoch  which  is  of  so  vital  an  interest  for  the  Christian 
world. 

He  was  now  in  a  country  where  the  very  moss  upon 

211 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

the  house-tops  is  of  secular  antiquity,  where  the  ways 
of  the  people  who  live  beneath  them  are  scarcely  less 
so,  and,  as  he  took  possession  of  his  camp  beneath  the 
crumbling  walls  of  the  great  Christian  Mecca,  and  gazed 
at  it  in  the  glory  of  a  violet  and  gold  sunset,  he  was 
evidently  deeply  impressed  and  moved.  But  when  he 
turned  his  horse's  head  towards  the  city  so  often  drench- 
ed with  the  blood  of  Christian  and  infidel  alike,  what  a 
shock  his  sensibilities  must  have  endured  —  although 
he  very  carefully  and  considerately  concealed  the  fact. 
Many  great  and  successful  careers  have  been  based  upon 
this  simple  practice  of  self-control. 

The  extravagant  preparations  made  for  the  entrance 
of  the  German  Sovereigns  into  Jerusalem  were  undoubt- 
edly the  outcome  of  excellent  intentions,  but  when  it 
comes  to  the  mathematical  grading  and  levelling  of 
eminently  picturesque  roads,  the  partial  pulling  down 
of  a  venerable  and  twenty -times  historical  wall,  and  the 
scouring  and  whitewashing  of  the  Jaffa -gate  and  of 
David's  Tower,  it  takes  considerable  self-control  for  a 
man  possessed,  like  Emperor  William,  of  a  reverential 
and  artistic  mind  to  compel  himself  to  smile  gratefully. 

M.  de  Mirbach,  one  of  the  chroniclers  of  the  Imperial 
pilgrimage,  remarks  that  Jerusalem  was  on  that  day  as 
neat  and  dainty  as  a  bonbon  box !  Ye  Gods !  A  bonbon 
box !  Could  anything  be  more  atrociously  "finde  siecle ' '  ? 

Indeed,  the  whole  pilgrimage  was  the  most  extraor- 
dinary thing  of  the  kind  ever  witnessed,  thanks  to  the 
meddlesome  interference  of  people  who,  fearing  lest  the 
Imperial  couple  should  lack  creature  comforts  and  mod- 
ern luxuries,  succeeded  in  replacing  by  a  glaring  and 
vulgar  up-to-dateness  beggaring  all  description,  all  the 
romance  and  antique  glamour  they — the  Emperor  and 
Empress — thirsted  for. 

Had  the  Emperor's  plans  for  this  "Imperial  Crusade" 

212 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

been  followed  scrupulously,  its  success  would  have  been 
a  foregone  conclusion,  for  he  is  "artiste  jusqu'au  bout 
dcs  ongles,"  and,  moreover,  sincerely  and  profoundly 
reverential — an  excellent  combination  under  such  cir- 
cumstances— but,  alas!  in  these  democratic  days  the 
first  and  foremost  thought  is  to  get  one's  money's  worth 
out  of  any  enterprise,  and  the  organizers  of  this  journey 
to  Palestine  were  so  eager  to  procure  for  their  Imperial 
patron  his  full  money's  worth  that  they  lamentably 
overdid  things. 

Moreover,  the  modern  human  being  never  quite  purges 
his  mind  of  the  instinct  commercial,  and  it  therefore 
goes  without  saying  that  the  costliness  of  the  occasion 
was  strained  to  its  uttermost  capacities.  There  are  a 
very  few  people  in  this  world  who  can  read  a  person's 
mind  by  the  mere  flicker  of  an  eyelid,  a  glance,  a  silence 
of  a  few  seconds,  or  any  other  such  trivial  sign,  in  pref- 
erence to  judging  by  the  spoken  word;  but  as  there 
happened  to  be  one  or  two  such  keen  observers  in  the 
Emperor's  train,  even  the  unalterable  good-humor  and 
smiling  resignation  to  the  "fait  accompli"  displayed  by 
that  august  personage  did  not  quite  succeed  in  entirely 
concealing  his  very  natural  disappointment. 

His  entrance  into  Jerusalem  was  impressive,  in  spite 
of  these  meddlesome  organizers,  for  mounted  on  a  su- 
perb white  palfrey  and  wearing  a  snowy  mantle,  the 
long  folds  of  which  fell  in  simple,  noble  lines  about  him, 
he  looked  every  inch  of  him  a  Crusader  King.  But  the 
"Wacht  am  Rhein"  shrilly  rendered  by  the  brass  bands 
of  the  Turkish  escort,  seemed  curiously  out  of  place  in 
those  quaint  old  thoroughfares,  where  the  "Allah  Akbar" 
of  the  true  believers  resounds  like  a  great,  plaintive  moan 
of  prayer,  rising  and  falling  solemnly,  to  be  re-echoed 
from  the  very  house-tops  and  to  die  away  with  infinite 
melancholy  at  the  very  threshold  of  the  Catholic  fanes, 

213 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

whence  low,  Latin  chants,  impressive  and  nerve-shaking, 
filter  into  the  dry,  resonant  air. 

These  are  the  melodies  echoing  down  the  centuries, 
which  make  all  Jerusalem  murmurous  with  one  orison 
arising  at  one  and  the  same  time  from  the  two  antago- 
nistic camps,  Christian  and  Moslem,  with  equal  fervor, 
but  the  martial  strains  of  brass  instruments  played  by 
the  neat,  trim,  and  thoroughly  modernized  soldiers  of 
the  Sultan,  who  contemptuously  designate  the  Holy 
Sepulchre  as  "el  Komamah"  (that  filth)  certainly  cre- 
ated a  lamentable  dissonance. 

Nor  after  sundown,  when  William  sank  humbly  upon 
his  knees  to  pray  fervently  in  the  dusky  gardens  of 
Gethsemane,  did  the  vague  outline  of  the  great  city, 
with  its  palaces  of  dead  Kings  rising  up  one  behind  the 
other,  their  crowding  roofs,  grim  and  gray  with  the 
wash  of  rains  and  the  storms  of  ages,  stretching  away 
into  the  dim  distance,  the  creviced  towers  over-topping 
other  towers,  and  the  silent,  oppressive  crenellations  of 
the  grand  sweep  of  wall,  suggest  the  magnificent  ban- 
quet cooked  by  French  chefs  "  di-primo-cdrtello"  and 
drenched  with  champagne  of  the  very  costliest  mark, 
waiting  there  for  this  Imperial  pilgrim. 

Black  and  menacing  in  the  sinister  light  of  a  redly 
rising  moon,  the  ancient  city  towered,  and,  wrapped  in 
his  cloak,  careless  now  of  jarring  contrasts,  impene- 
trable, and  with  thoughts  and  heart  concentrated,  the 
Emperor  knelt  on  the  bare  ground,  the  old  Jerusalem 
alone  looming  large  before  his  vision,  drawing  »earer, 
moving  towards  him,  first  slowly,  then  quickly,  then 
in  a  rush  of  overpowering  feeling,  the  centuries  slip- 
ping from  him  like  a  mantle,  and  leaving  him  but  an 
awed  and  humble  worshipper. 

This  same  spirit  of  revocation  permeated  him  when 
he  walked  on  the  Mount  of  Olives,  received  the  Holy 

214 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

Communion  in  the  "Coenaculum,"  attended  the  conse- 
cration of  the  Church  of  the  Holy  Saviour,  and  travelled 
by  road  from  Jerusalem  to  Damascus.  The  incongrui- 
ties of  the  "personally  conducted  tourist's  trip11  no 
longer  grated  upon  him,  for  his  ardent  faith  blotted  out 
all  the  exasperating  false  notes  which  marred  this  grand, 
religious  symphony. 

Slowly  he  rode  between  endless  fields  of  velvety  bar- 
ley, such  as  those  in  which  the  Founder  of  Christianity 
had  passed  with  his  disciples;  walked  his  horse  across 
wide  strips  of  Palestine  irises  and  asphodels,  gazing  ab- 
stractedly at  the  plumes  of  distant  palms  or  the  groups 
of  dark  olives  showing  against  the  faint  dead  turquoise 
blue  of  the  horizon  line. 

From  the  gray  walls  of  the  antique  buildings,  from 
the  flower-filled  plain,  nay,  even  from  the  brilliant  dust 
dancing  beneath  his  charger's  feet,  the  all-pervading 
chant  of  the  Past  rose  and  declined  continuously  in  an 
arc  of  sound  and  of  blinding  magnificence,  which  nothing 
could  dim  and  which  made  his  whole  being  throb  exult- 
antly. All  the  intuitions  of  his  at  times  singularly  mys- 
tical mind  came  to  his  aid  and  brought  him  imperish- 
able solace.  His  eyes  roamed  upon  the  great  plain,  level 
as  a  sea,  that  stretched  away  to  right  and  to  left  until 
the  distinct,  somewhat  harsh  color  of  its  flower  and  bar- 
ley patches  merged  into  one  soft,  shimmering,  amethys- 
tine hue. 

Why  had  this  "restless"  Emperor  gone  to  Palestine? 
The  question  had  been  launched  by  sharp,  challenging 
voices,  and  scratched  sourly  by  many  acerated  pens 
throughout  Europe. 

Why?  For  this!  Just  for  this,  ye  vindictive  and 
jealous  apostles  of  curiosity!  And  his  aim  was  now  ac- 
complished. 

Such  a  statement  may  seem  strange  to  a  crowd  which, 

215 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

hankering  after  music  of  the  dancing-hall  type,  sudden- 
ly hears  a  melodious  symphony  played  by  a  master-hand 
—yes,  strange  and  unpleasant,  like  any  other  truth. 

********* 
********* 

Usually,  when  either  at  home  or  abroad,  the  amount 
of  labor  Emperor  William  accomplishes  in  a  day  is 
without  parallel.  During  his  sojourn  in  Constantinople 
he  had  fairly  bewildered  the  languid  Orientals  by  his 
unconquerable  energy  and  his  indefatigable  vitality, 
but  this  journey  to  Palestine  was  a  time  apart,  during 
which  the  dreamer  within  him  had  full  play,  instead  of 
being,  as  usual,  repressed  and  denied;  and  really,  what- 
ever gibes  and  stings  the  world  might  afterwards  dis- 
pense about  the  histrionic  proclivities  and  melodramatic 
"penchants"  of  this  particular  Crusader,  they  would  be 
trifling  and  unimportant  compared  with  the  treasure  of 
freshly  gathered  delight  thus  acquired. 

Similar  sneers  have  been  levelled  at  his  self-assumed 
role  of  " Snmmus  Episcopus"  of  the  Lutheran  Church 
throughout  his  Empire,  although,  strictly  speaking,  his 
supremacy  in  the  State  Church  of  his  Realm  is  just  as 
logical  as  that  of  the  Muscovite  and  British  Sovereigns. 

Is  he  not  by  right  of  inheritance  a  titular  Bishop  and 
Archbishop,  some  twenty  times  over,  since  his  ancestors 
when  annexing  small  States  and  Sovereignties  invari- 
ably obtained  the  Mitre  with  the  Crown  and  the  Crozier 
with  the  Sceptre  ?  For  it  will  be  remembered  that  many 
petty  German  States  in  the  Middle-Ages  were  ruled  by 
Bishops  and  Archbishops  possessing  Sovereign  rank, 
their  ecclesiastical  dignity  being  inherent  to  their  es- 
tates as  Rulers. 

Moreover,  the  objections  presented  to  William's  recog- 
nition as  Supreme  Head  of  the  Lutheran  Church,  on  the 
plea  that  that  branch  of  Christianity  is  not  confined  to 

216 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

his  dominions,  are  absurd,  for  Greek  Catholicism  is  by 
no  means  limited  by  the  boundaries  of  the  Czar's  do- 
minions, and  there  is  a  large  Anglican  body  in  the  United 
States,  which  patent  facts  do  not  prevent  the  Emperor 
of  All  The  Russias  and  the  English  King  from  being 
hereditary  " Summi  Episcopi"  within  their  respective 
countries.  So  there,  also,  the  public  is  inclined  to  des- 
perately exaggerate  a  perfectly  legitimate  idea  into  yet 
another  proof  of  inordinate  and  unbearable  ambition. 

Another  most  amusing  error  is  that  engendered  by 
the  conspicuous  position  on  the  wall  of  William's  study 
at  Potsdam  of  the  copy  of  a  genealogical  tree  presented 
by  Queen  Victoria,  and  the  original  of  which  is  at  Wind- 
sor Castle.  Since  in  this  document  a  descent  is  traced 
by  way  of  the  English  Royal  line  to  Heremon,  an  ancient 
King  of  Ulster,  and  thence  back  to  King  David  through 
Heremon's  wife — a  mythical  Princess  of  Israel — it  has 
been  currently  stated  that  the  Emperor  prides  himself 
greatly  on  belonging  to  the  same  family  as  Christ. 

It  is  really  incredible  that  it  should  be  necessary  to 
explain  that  this  pedigree — at  least  the  Hebrew  part 
of  it — is  nothing  more  than  an  interesting  relic  of  the 
feudal  ages,  when  coats  of  arms  were  devised  for  such 
doubtful  cavaliers  as  Achilles  and  Hector,  and  when 
the  title  of  Abraham,  Moses,  and  Aaron  to  be  considered 
"gentlemen"  was  gravely  affirmed  by  such  enthusiasts 
as  that  veracious  lady,  Juliana  Berners,  who,  moreover, 
speaks  of  the  "gentilman  Jesus.  .  .  very  God  and  man; 
after  his  manhode  King  of  the  londe  of  Jude  and  of  Jewes, 
gentilman  by  his  moder  Mary,  prynce  of  cote  armure" 

There  is,  however,  a  descent  of  which  Emperor  Will- 
iam is  very  proud — and  with  justice — that  from  those 
heroic  men,  Gaspard  de  Coligny,  Admiral  of  France, 
who  was  slain  in  the  Massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew,  and 
William  the  Silent,  Prince  of  Orange-Nassau,  the  Lib- 

217 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

erator  of  the  Netherlands.  This  descent,  by  reason  of 
which  the  Prussian  Crown  possesses  the  title  of  "Prince 
of  Orange" — an  extinct  principality  in  the  heart  of 
France — and  a  right  to  the  Throne  of  Holland,  accord- 
ing to  the  legitimistic  point  of  view,  greater  than  that 
of  Queen  Wilhelmina,  may  be  traced  by  no  less  than 
three  lines,  one  being  the  direct  line  of  the  Prussian 
Kings,  and  the  other  two  those  of  the  parents  of  the 
late  Empress-Dowager  Augusta  of  Saxe-Weimar. 

Gaspard,  Due  de  Coligny,  was  born  February  16,  1517, 
at  the  ancestral  seat  of  his  family,  the  Chateau  de  Cha- 
tillon-sur-Loing,  in  what  is  now  the  Department  of 
Loiret,  son  of  Gaspard,  Due  de  Coligny,  Marshal  and  Peer 
of  France,  and  Louise  de  Montmorency.  He  married 
Charlotte  de  Laval,  and  their  daughter,  Louise  de 
Coligny,  born  in  155 5,  married  first  Charles  de  Teligny, 
who  perished  with  his  father-in-law  in  the  St.  Bar- 
tholomew, and  afterwards,  at  Antwerp,  in  1583,  William 
the  Silent.  Their  granddaughter,  Louise  Henriette  of 
Orange-Nassau,  aunt  of  William  III.  of  England  and 
Holland,  married,  in  1646,  Frederick  William  the  Great, 
Elector  of  Brandenburg,  the  eleventh  Prince  of  his  line 
since  the  year  1415,  when  the  Emperor  Sigismund,  in 
return  for  aid  that  raised  him  to  the  Imperial  Throne, 
conferred  the  electoral  dignity  upon  the  powerful  Burg- 
graves  of  Nuremberg,  who  prior  to  1191  had  been  the 
hard-fighting  Swabian  Counts  of  Hohenzollern.  Their 
son,  Frederick,  was  the  first  King  of  Prussia. 

Or  perhaps  a  chart  states  the  matter  more  plainly : 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 


Gaspard  de  Coligny— Louise  de  Montmorency 


Gaspard  de  Coligny^Charlotte  de  Laval 
n.   i  s 19;  D.   r s?2. 
(The  St.  Bartholo- 
mew) 


B.   1533;  William  the  Silent=Louise  de  Coligny  B.   i5S5i 

D.   1584.     Prince  of  Orange-Nassau,  D.   1620. 

Stadtholder  of  Holland 


Henry  Frederick  of  Orange-Nassau 
Stadtholder  of  Holland     B.   1584,  D.   1647. 


Frederick  William —  Louise  Henriette  of  Orange-Nassau 


Elector  of  Bran- 
denburg 
B.  1620;  D.  1688. 


Frederick  I.  King 
of     Prussia 
B. 1657,  D.  1713. 


B.  1688;  D.  1740. 


B.  1627;  D.  1667. 

(Aunt  of  William  III.  of  England) 


Sophie  Charlotte  of  Hanover  D.  1705 
Great-Granddaughter  of  James  I.  of 
England,  and  sister  of  George  I.  of 
England 


Frederick  William  7.=Sophie  Dorothea  of  Hanover 


1757- 


Frederick  II.  The  Great 

B.     1712;    D.    1786. 


Augustus  William,  Prince  of  Prussia 
B.   1722;  D.   1758.     Married  Louisa 
Amalia  of  Brunswick-Wolfenbiittel 


Frederick  William  //.— Frederica  Louisa  of  Hesse-Darmstadt 

B.    1744;    D.    1797.  D.    1805. 


Frederick  William  III. 

B.    1770;    D.    1840. 


Louisa  of  Mecklenburg-Strelitz 

B.  1776;  p.   1810. 
"The  Beautiful  Queen  Louise' 


Frederick  William  IV. 
B.  1795;  D.   1861. 


William  I.  B.   1797;  D.   1888. 
Married  Augusta  of 
Saxe-Weimar 

B.  1811;  D.  1890. 


Frederick  ///.^Victoria  of  England 

B.  1831;       B.  1840;  D.  1901 
D.  1888. 


William  II. 
B.  1859- 


219 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

And   as   regards   the   two   lines   of    descent   through 
Augusta  of  Saxe-Weiniar, 

Gaspard  de  Coligny=Charlotte  de  Laval 

B.   1519;    D.  1572. I 
(The  St.  Bartholomew)  | 

William  the  Silent— Louise  de  Coligny 
Prince  of  Orange-Nassau  B.  1555;     D.  1620. 

Stadtholder  of  Holland 
B.  1533;  D.   1584 

Henry  Frederick  of  Orange-Nassau,  Stadtholder  of  Holland 
B.   1584.   |      D.  1647. 


Frederick 
William  the 
Great  Elector 

B.    1620 
D.    1688. 

(ist  marriage) 

Louise 
Henriette 
of  Orange- 
Nassau 
B.  1627; 

D.  1667. 

Henriette 
Catherine 
of  Orange- 
Nassau 
B.  1637; 
D.  1708. 

John 
Georgell 
Prince  of 
Anhalt- 
Dessau 

B.  1627; 
D.  1693- 

Frederick 
William 
the  Great 
Elector 
B.  1620; 
D.  1688. 

Dorothea  of 
Holstein- 
Glucksberg 
B.    1636; 

D.  1689. 

(2d  marriage) 

Frederick  I. 
King  of  Prussia 
B.  1657;  D.  1713- 

Frederick  William  I. 
King  of  Prussia 

B.  l688     D.  1740. 


Philippine  Sophie  of 

Charlotte  of  Prussia  Prussia, 

B.     1716;    D.    1801.        B. 1719; D 

Married  Charles  I.    v 

Duke  of  Brunswick- 
Wolfenbuttel 

B.  1713;  D.  1780. 

Anna  Amalia  of 
Brunswick- Wolf  en- 
biittel  B.   1739; 
D.   1807.  Married 
Ernest  Augustus  II. 
Duke    of    Saxe- Wei- 
mar     B.    1737; 
D.    I758- 

Charles  Augustus 
Grand-Duke  of  Saxe- 
Weimar    B.  1757; 
D.   1828. 

Charles  Frederick 

Grand-Duke  of  Saxe- 

Weimar. 

B. 1783;  D. 1853. 


Johanna  Charlotte  of 

Anhalt-Dessau 

B.  1682;  D.  1750. 


Philip  William,  Mar- 
grave of  Brandenburg- 
Schwedt    8.1669:0.1711. 


1765- 


Frederick  William 
Margrave  of  Brandenburg-Schwedt 
B.   1700;  D.   1772. 


Frederica  Sophia  Dorothea 


of  Brandenburg-Schwedt 


1736-  D.   1798.     Married  Frederick  II.,  Duke  of 
Wiirtemberg     B.  1732;  D.  1797 


Sophia  (Maria  Feodorowna)  of  Wiirtem.berg 
B.   1759;  D.   1828.  Married  Paul  I.  Emperor  of 
Russia    B.   1754;  D.   1801. 


Maria  Paulowna  of  Russia 

B.    1786;    D.    1859. 


~T 


William  I.,  King  of  Prussia^ Augusta  of  Saxe-Weimar 
B. 1797;  D. 1888.  B.  1811;  D. 1890. 

Frederick  III.,  King  of  Prussia=Victoria  of  England, 
B.  1831;  D.  1888.  |     B.   1840;  D.   1901. 

William  II.  of  Prussia  and  Germany     B.   1859. 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

Slow  of  movement,  slow  of  speech,  the  Teutons  are  re- 
puted to  be;  but  although  most  excessively  Teuton  in 
heart  and  soul,  as  well  as  in  most  other  respects,  Em- 
peror William  is  not  slow  by  any  means,  neither  is  he 
taciturn.  On  the  contrary,  although  he  is  the  busiest 
man  in  his  Empire,  he  yet  finds  time  for  everything, 
even  for  occasional  amusement,  and  amusement  with 
him  is  synonymous  with  all  things  pertaining  to 
sport. 

Fishing-rods,  spiteful  -  looking  hooks,  and  all  other 
paraphernalia  belonging  to  the  perfect  angler's  outfit, 
are  far  from  being  His  Majesty's  chief  toys,  for  shooting, 
hunting,  riding,  canoeing,  swimming — nay,  polo,  tennis, 
and  dancing,  besides  many  other  lighter  branches  of 
sport — if  one  may  give  that  name  to  a  somewhat  hetero- 
geneous list — claim  their  fair  share  of  his  wide-awake  and 
remarkably  intelligent  interest. 

There  are  among  these  manifold  above-mentioned 
branches  some  wherein  a  certain  mechanical  portion  of 
the  brain  is  sufficient  to  guide  and  inspire  the  hand, 
leaving  the  remainder  free  for  other  work  —  the  steer- 
ing of  a  ship,  for  instance,  and  even  the  handling  of  a 
whistling  trout -line  —  although  ardent  fishermen  will 
probably  anathematize  me  for  pronouncing  such  a 
heresy.  But  big-game  shooting  emphatically  does  not 
belong  to  that  order  of  things;  its  extermination  must 
needs  be  transacted  by  the  help  of  the  whole  amount 
of  mother -wit  one  is  blessed  with,  I  do  assure  you, 
and  big-game  shooting  is  one  of  William's  favorite  pas- 
times. 

A  great  Northern  forest  in  winter  is  one  of  nature's 
most  magnificent  efforts  towards  perfection — indeed,  the 
beauty  of  such  a  scene  grips  one  positively  by  the  throat. 
Trackless,  motionless,  virginal,  the  huge  expanse  of  up- 
right pine-trunks  and  immaculate  snow  stretch  before 

221 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

the  wandering  eyes  of  the  hunters,  and  a  sort  of  infec- 
tious silence — 

"  So  white  and  still,  fur  's  you  can  look  or  listen," 

broken  only  by  the  miniature  avalanches  caused  by  the 
dip  of  a  heavily  laden  branch  beneath  the  light  touch 
of  a  white  willow-grouse,  or  a  whirling  snipe  in  the  sum- 
mits of  the  trees  emitting  its  warning  note,  gives  one 
almost  the  impression  of  standing  in  a  sacred  place. 

This  feeling,  of  course,  departs  when  one  remembers 
that  the  chief  reason  of  one's  presence  is  the  quest  of 
bears,  wolves,  black -game,  capercailzie  or  ptarmigan, 
and  is  replaced  —  especially  when  the  weird,  hopeless 
howl  of  the  wolves  strikes  one's  ears — by  a  sensation 
distinctly  the  reverse  of  solemn! 

William  II.  is  passionately  fond  of  hunting  in  winter, 
when  the  icy  wind  whispers  and  gurgles  in  the  pines, 
when  the  air  is  thin  like  spun  -  crystal,  exhilarating 
like  a  draught  of  champagne,  and  sends  the  blood 
coursing  through  one's  veins  with  a  surprising  "  joie  de 
vivre." 

A  strange,  popular  delusion  is  that  he  likes  the  gro- 
tesque and  "bourgeois"  mode  of  shooting  young  boars 
bereft  of  their  tusks  at  a  pitifully  tender  age  and  driven 
like  sheep  towards  him  from  their  pens  in  the  tlSa^igar- 
ten"  That,  like  all  other  popular  delusions  of  which 
he  is  the  subject,  is  quite  untrue.  Germany's  Emperor 
is  far  too  much  of  a  man  to  enjoy  so  tame  a  sport.  Al- 
though when  timid  guests  flock  around  him  he  grudg- 
ingly consents  to  take  part  in  such  butchery — a  tra- 
ditional form  of  entertainment  —  yet,  for  himself,  he 
prefers  more  difficult  forms  of  woodland  hunting,  es- 
pecially since  being  an  extraordinarily  good  shot,  and 
versed  in  all  forest-craft,  the  ruses  of  the  furred  and 


RETURNING    FROM    A    CHAMOIS    HUNT 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

feathered  denizens  of  his  boundless  pine-woods  are  but 
an  additional  attraction. 

He  is  remarkably  learned  in  the  ways  and  customs  of 
big  game,  and  to  him  there  is  nothing  comparable  to  the 
joy  of  outwitting  those  ponderous  brutes  which  tread 
so  silently  and  stealthily  through  the  snow-white  clear- 
ings, to  gain,  unperceived  if  possible,  the  bluish  depths 
of  the  surrounding  thickets.  The  distant  cries  of  small 
birds,  the  far-off  warning  of  a  wolf,  are  quickly  and 
easily  interpreted  by  his  practised  ear,  and,  clad  in  fur- 
lined  clothes,  he  loves  to  stand  alone  in  a  woodman's 
refuge,  one  rifle  across  his  arm,  another  near  to  hand, 
watching  through  the  interlaced  branches  the  approach 
of  a  gaunt  "Gray  Brother"  lurching  from  cover  with  an 
evil  grin  on  his  snarling  lips,  the  silent  skimming  of  a 
grouse  over  the  open  space,  or  the  shambling  of  a  grum- 
bling, growling  bear,  furious  at  having  been  disturbed 
and  hunted  from  his  lair  by  the  beaters. 

When  not  awakened  from  their  long  winter's  sleep, 
these  bears  are  not  particularly  ferocious,  but  when 
they  have  been  forced  to  relinquish  the  warm  cosiness 
of  their  comfortable  quarters,  that  is  quite  another  af- 
fair, for  they  suddenly  become  adversaries  worthy  of 
the  best  steel. 

At  those  moments  there  is  a  singular  gleam  in  Will- 
iam's eyes  which  is  not  due  to  the  mere  excitement  of 
a  sportsman,  and  which  one  may  notice  there  every 
time  he  is  confronted  by  some  difficulty  which  he  is 
eager  to  conquer.  His  whole  attitude  and  manner  in- 
dicate a  complete  mastery  of  the  situation;  there  is  a 
strong,  calm,  and  essentially  manly  air  about  him, 
through  which  the  unlimited  power  of  an  unconquer- 
able will  is  apparent;  physically  also  he  has  the  lithe- 
ness  which  one  finds  in  many  Germans  who  have  taken 
their  degree  at  one  of  their  great  Universities,  for  the 

223 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

German  students  are  the  finest  gymnasts  in  the  world, 
and  muscle  once  made  is  there  to  stay. 

His  exquisite  little  Castle  of  Letzlingen  is,  in  my 
humble  opinion,  the  gem  of  the  collection  of  similar 
Imperial  and  Royal  hunting-boxes  throughout  Europe. 
After  the  great  autumnal  military  manoeuvres  have 
come  to  an  end,  Emperor  William  usually  begins  the 
sporting  season  by  going  to  Rominten,  his  shooting-box 
on  the  Romintener-Heide,  which  is  situated  in  the  dis- 
trict of  Gumbinnen,  in  East  Prussia,  and  surrounded  by 
some  seventy  or  eighty  square  miles  of  forest-land.  The 
heath  itself  is  not  like  the  barren,  unprofitable  Scottish 
moors,  dreary  and  monotonous  beyond  compare,  nor 
the  wind-blown,  rock-strewn  "Landes"  of  Brittany,  ren- 
dered so  infinitely  gorgeous  by  the  dazzling  gold  of  fierce- 
ly armored  whin -bushes,  the  delicate  pink  and  white 
and  deep  purple  of  the  heather,  and  the  rich  yellow 
of  innumerable  genestas,  but  is  a  very  different  sort  of 
country,  covered  with  dense  pine-woods  of  quite  savage 
grandeur,  carpeted  with  thick  mosses  and  intersected 
by  fern  -  bordered  rivulets.  There  the  Emperor  often 
rides  far  and  fast  among  the  splendid  trees  and  out  on 
the  broad  turf  roads,  closed  in  with  a  dewy  veil  of 
greenery,  which  the  approaching  autumn  begins  to  tint 
lightly  with  flecks  of  ruby  and  topaz. 

The  house  itself  is  an  idealized  double  chalet,  very 
roomy  and  comfortable,  planted  on  a  green  lawn  belted 
by  larches,  beeches,  and  walnut-trees,  which  cluster 
gracefully  around  some  tall,  dark-needled  Siberian  pines. 
Close  to  it  rises  the  slender  spire  of  the  quaint  little 
chapel  of  St.  Hubert,  patron  of  the  chase,  where  the 
religious  services  are  conducted  by  a  Court  Chaplain 
during  the  Emperor's  sojourns.  The  Kaiser  is  certainly 
one  of  St.  Hubert's  most  fervent  devotees,  and  invari- 
ably wears  around  his  neck,  when  in  hunting-dress,  the 

224 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

broad  green  ribbon  of  the  St.  Hubert's  Order,  inscribed 
with  the  words  "  Vivent  Ic  Roy  et  ses  chasseurs,"  from 
which  depends  a  swiftly  racing  stag  exquisitely  wrought 
in  silver  and  surmounted  by  a  Royal  Crown  and  a 
cluster  of  acorns. 

From  Rominten  the  Emperor  goes  on  to  Hubertus- 
tock,  another  of  the  Imperial  "Jagdreviers"  which  is 
celebrated  for  the  plentifulness  of  its  red  deer. 

On  November  3d,  the  " Hubertusjagd"  (St.  Hubert's 
Hunt)  takes  place  in  the  "Grunewald"  near  Berlin,  an 
occasion  of  much  display,  to  witness  which  from  one 
hundred  and  fifty  to  two  hundred  invitations  are  yearly 
issued;  and,  finally,  towards  the  end  of  November,  the 
indefatigable  Imperial  Nimrod  arrives  at  Schloss  Letz- 
lingen,  which  in  former  days  used  to  be  known  by  the 
name  of  " Hirschburg"  (the  Castle  of  Stags). 

It  was  built  in  1560  by  Kurprinz  Johann  George  von 
Brandenburg,  who  was  also  a  passionate  disciple  of  the 
great  St.  Hubert,  and  is  a  delicious  bit  of  Gothic  archi- 
tecture, embowered  by  century -old  oaks.  There  is  a 
tower  <•  flanked  and  crenellated  wall  surrounding  the 
Castle,  at  the  foot  of  which  a  broad  moat  does  duty  as 
a  mirror  to  reflect  the  tiny  turrets  and  machicolations 
crowning  the  massive  barbican. 

The  Emperor's  room  is  the  most  picturesque  and 
covetable  one  can  imagine.  A  dark  tapestry  covers  the 
walls,  and  the  ceiling  is  formed  by  aged  and  mellowed 
oak -beams.  It  is  lighted  at  night  by  sconces  and  a 
magnificent  hanging  "Lustre"  made  from  the  antlers 
of  stags  killed  on  the  estate,  and  before  the  carved  writ- 
ing-desk is  a  gigantic  arm-chair,  the  legs,  arms,  and  head- 
rest of  which  are  formed  of  the  great  curved  horns  of 
the  long-vanished  and  extinct  red  cattle. 

Every  self-respecting  writer  must  prate  of  the  interior 
of  houses  or  palaces — as  the  case  may  be — interiors 

225 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

which  are  more  or  less  alike  all  the  world  over,  for 
costly  draperies,  beautiful  pictures,  inlaid  furniture,  and 
magnificent  carpets  are  the  same  between  any  four 
walls;  but  still,  after  all,  the  foot  that  treads  the  carpets, 
the  hand  looping  up  the  draperies,  and  the  brain  plan- 
ning the  "tout  ensemble"  make  them  differ  in  some  es- 
sential points,  for  whether  the  description  above  decried 
be  that  of  a  castle  or  a  hovel,  it  still  must  be  the  human 
being  that  lends  the  interest  to  the  cocoon  he  inhabits. 

William  II.  was  born  with  a  talent  to  produce  the 
best  effects  in  any  of  the  places  he  lives  in,  the  best  that 
are  to  be  obtained  from  the  materials  at  hand,  and 
when  those  do  not  suffice,  his  purse  is  sufficiently  long 
and  his  taste  sufficiently  great  to  remedy,  promptly, 
whatever  is  lacking.  Indeed,  the  room  I  am  attempt- 
ing to  describe  is,  from  the  square  polychrome  stove  in 
the  corner  to  the  trifles  littering  the  writing-table,  per- 
fect. Through  the  tapestry  one  divines  the  outline  of 
the  square-hewn  blocks  of  granite  of  which  the  Schloss 
is  built ;  there  are  wild-flowers  in  shallow  bowls  on  low, 
heavy  tables,  deep-curtained  windows,  massive  chairs, 
a  wonderful  rug  or  two,  and  on  the  walls  some  remark- 
able water -colors  and  a  quantity  of  trophies  of  the 
chase,  including  admirably  mounted  antlered  heads  of 
"Royals  "  queer  lynx  faces  grinning  evilly,  wild  boars 
with  protruding  tusks,  and  bears  and  wolves  with  spar- 
kling crystal  eyes  as  bright  as  if  still  full  of  life. 

Among  the  many  curios  to  be  seen  at  Letzlingen  is 
an  old  goblet  cunningly  fastened  between  the  points  of 
a  pair  of  giant  antlers.  It  is  only  possible  to  drink 
therefrom  by  squeezing  one's  face  between  these  points, 
which  for  rotund  people  is  a  difficult  achievement.  It 
is  a  custom  for  every  one  of  the  Emperor's  guests  to  be 
put  through  this  odd  performance,  in  order  to  thus  ab- 
sorb a  pint  bottle  of  champagne  at  one  draught,  to  the 

226 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

health  of  the  Imperial  host,  and  loud  and  merry  is  the 
laughter  when  some  clumsy  or  embarrassed  person 
comes  to  grief  and  spills  the  contents  upon  himself. 

The  Emperor  is  a  dead  shot,  his  aim  being  almost  ab- 
solutely unerring.  Elks  have  fallen  victims  to  his  gun 
in  Sweden,  bears  in  Russia  and  in  Hungary — besides 
those  killed  on  his  own  lands  —  reindeer  in  Norway, 
chamois  in  the  Tyrol,  and  several  "Aurochsen" — those 
fierce  wild  cattle  now  almost  extinct — in  the  private  do- 
mains of  the  Czar,  not  to  mention  boars,  wolves,  stags, 
deer,  and  innumerable  birds  of  all  sizes,  species,  and  de- 
grees of  rarity,  in  every  corner  of  Europe.  To  termi- 
nate this  list  worthily,  it  is  only  necessary  to  mention 
the  two  or  three  whales  which  he  shot  with  a  harpoon- 
gun  during  his  Far-Northern  trips. 

It  is,  perchance,  at  Rominten,  however,  that  William 
enjoys  the  shooting  he  likes  best,  since,  as  it  is  situated 
in  close  proximity  to  the  Russian  frontier,  there  is  an 
abundance  of  wolves  and  of  big  game  in  the  surround- 
ing forests. 

When  the  snow  falls  softly  and  steadily,  as  it  falls  in 
those  regions,  filling  the  whole  atmosphere  with  a  fine, 
brilliant,  icy  powder,  which  drifts  constantly,  restlessly, 
in  soft,  broad  waves  like  those  of  an  ocean,  the  Emperor 
drives  his  sleigh  to  the  great,  silent  woods,  as  fast  as 
horses  can  lay  hoof  to  the  frozen  surface  of  the  interven- 
ing roads.  He  takes  the  numbing  wind  which  tears  and 
howls  down  straight  from  the  North  as  a  matter  of 
course,  and  with  the  composure  that  comes  of  long  ex- 
perience, holds  the  reins  and  handles  them  after  the 
fashion  of  Russian  Yemschiks,  for  he  has  a  singular  knack 
of  adapting  himself  almost  unconsciously  to  his  surround- 
ings. The  certain  knowledge  that  at  any  moment  the 
horses  may  plunge  into  a  drift  and  that  such  an  accident 
is  sometimes  fraught  with  considerable  danger,  when  the 

227 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

thermometer  merrily  hovers  between  twenty  and  thirty, 
or  even  forty  degrees  below  freezing-point,  leaves  him 
quite  undisturbed,  for  a  Sovereign  who  constantly  and 
cheerfully  runs  the  danger  of  assassination  does  not 
rate  the  value  of  his  life  very  high.  Moreover,  he  has 
that  delight  in  battling  with  the  elements  which  is  a 
peculiarity  of  all  strong  men  and  a  few — a  very  few- 
small  women,  who  in  their  inferior  way  are  strong  too! 

As  a  rider  Emperor  William  is  equally  skilled :  he  rides 
like  an  Austrian — encomium  can  go  no  further.  His 
horses  are  the  best  that  money  can  purchase,  and  a 
finer  judge  of  equine  qualities  never  stood  in  a  pair  of 
perfectly  fitting  riding-boots.  Passionately  devoted  to 
"terrain"  riding,  it  is  a  pleasure  to  see  him  negotiate 
tall  fences  and  broad  water-jumps  with  the  rapidity, 
security,  and  neatness  of  a  professional,  and  without 
even  putting  an  iron  astray. 

Generally  speaking,  he  and  his  hunters  are  equally 
keen  on  going,  and  the  pair  of  them  move  at  a  head- 
long gallop,  which  does  a  connoisseur's  heart  good  to 
witness. 

In  the  hunting-field  he  is  often  in  absolutely  boyish 
spirits,  sitting  squarely  in  his  saddle,  hands  well  down, 
and  blue  eyes  dancing  with  excitement,  while  he  faces 
every  obstacle  indiscriminately,  and  goes  over  all, 
whether  they  be  high  or  wide,  as  if  leaping  mere  potato- 
furrows. 

All  sorts  of  marvellous  escapes  from  harm  are  in  the 
day's-work  with  him,  cross-country  or  otherwise.  In 
his  pink  coat  he  is  the  picture  of  a  horseman,  his  horses 
are  always  pictures,  too,  and  horse  and  rider  sail  away 
at  the  tail  of  the  pack  without  thrust  or  flurry,  but 
with  unimpeachable  judgment  and  determination  on 
the  part  of  the  latter,  and  extraordinary  speed  and  en- 
durance on  that  of  the  former,  a  combination  of  felici- 

228 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

tious  circumstances  which  fills  the  expert  on -lookers 
with  delight. 

He  has  a  foolish  way,  too,  of  getting  fond  of  horses — 
I  commit  the  deliberate  li lese-majeste"  of  saying  "fool- 
ish "  because  this  warm  love  of  animals  adds  only  to 
the  many  heart-breaks  life's  treacheries  keep  in  store 
for  us.  A  consolation  it  is  often,  to  be  sure;  but  taken 
all  in  all,  the  tenderness  which  one  feels  for  horses  and 
dogs  is  prone  to  make  one  undergo  many  stripes,  for 
one  can  sometimes  feel  almost  frantic  pain  at  the  loss 
of  one  of  those  four-footed  friends,  whose  unswerving 
loyalty  and  absolute  devotion  are  never  at  fault,  as  is 
the  case  with  so  many  two-footed  ones. 

The  Emperor  enjoys  few  things  better  than  to  go 
with  his  family  for  a  few  weeks'  stay  on  his  estate  of 
Kadinen,  a  beautiful  place  where  blooded  cattle  are  bred, 
and  where  agronomy  is  carried  on  as  behooves  a  model 
farm.  The  whole  establishment  is  kept  in  apple  -  pie 
order,  and  in  a  constant  state  of  perfection  against  the 
Imperial  owner's  frequent  and  unannounced  arrivals. 
It  includes  immense  brick  -  yards,  of  which  the  latter 
is  not  a  little  proud;  a  forge,  always  in  full  swing;  long 
rows  of  stables,  displaying  all  the  best  inventions  in  the 
way  of  sanitation  and  ventilation;  some  handsome  out- 
buildings and  granaries,  and  a  goodly  number  of  irri- 
gation canals  keeping  the  broad  pastures  green  through 
the  hottest  summers. 

The  dwelling-house  itself  is  simple,  but  exceedingly 
comfortable,  and  over  the  entrance  door  an  old  horseshoe 
is  let  into  the  mortar,  with  the  words  "Found  by  Her 
Majesty  the  Empress,  September  20,  1900,"  inscribed  in 
fancy  lettering — the  lucky  and  time-honored  properties 
of  a  rusty  horseshoe  being  evidently  of  some  importance 
even  to  Monarchs. 

When  at  Kadinen,  the  green,  leafy,  silent  country  is 

229 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

between  Germany's  Emperor  and  the  world.  The  life  he 
leads  there  is  almost  austerely  simple  in  all  its  customs ; 
his  children  play  and  run  about  joyously,  like  young 
swallows  chirping  under  the  eaves  in  midsummer,  and 
the  entire  place  is  wholly  unlike  an  Imperial  residence, 
for  the  pomps  and  vanities  and  magnificences  of  the 
world  find  not  their  way  there. 

The  Empress,  in  her  still,  serene,  serious  fashion,  en- 
joys these  sojourns  exceedingly,  and  accomplishes  all 
the  tasks  she  has  set  herself  with  unfaltering  persever- 
ance. The  peasants  for  miles  around  come  and  con- 
fide their  troubles  to  her  where  she  sits  after  breakfast 
before  the  one-storied,  mansard-roofed  homestead,  with 
the  gay  sunshine  gleaming  in  the  gold  of  her  hair,  and 
streaming  upon  the  tiny  lakelet  at  her  feet,  all  framed 
with  mouse-ear  and  forget-me-nots. 

Her  plain  gown,  her  hands  usually  filled  with  flowers, 
her  kindly  eyes  shaded  by  her  large  gardening  hat,  make 
a  picture  against  the  brightness  of  the  scene  even  more 
attractive  than  her  satins  and  her  glorious  jewels  can 
accomplish,  surrounded  by  all  the  blaze  and  splendor 
of  a  great  ball  in  the  Throne -Room  of  her  husband's 
palace. 

To  say  that  the  Emperor  likes  the  sea  is  not  to  state 
his  case  fairly,  for  he  does  far  more  than  like  it.  The 
hardest  North  Sea  weather  leaves  him  quite  content 
to  pace  the  deck  of  his  yacht  in  his  gleaming  oilskins, 
and  muddy  waters,  gray  skies,  cold  rains,  and  moaning 
winds  have  no  effect  whatsoever  on  his  cheerfulness. 
Aye,  even  fog,  this  sailor's  deadliest  foe,  cannot  do  that. 
He  loves  to  watch  the  angry  sun  sink,  after  a  stormy 
day,  below  the  red  -  gray  clouds  on  the  tempestuous 
horizon,  and  to  follow  with  his  experienced  glance  the 
vessel  pitching  her  nose  into  the  green  waves,  and  throw- 
ing from  time  to  time  a  cloud  of  spray  and  spindrift  over 

230 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

the  length  of  her  decks,  like  a  bird  at  its  bath.  His  deep 
eyes  laugh  then  in  the  shadow  of  his  black  sou'wester, 
as  they  laugh  at  bad  and  good  weather  alike  wherever 
he  is  in  command,  but  especially  at  bad  weather — this 
is  a  well-defined  characteristic  of  those  who  have  a  pas- 
sion for  the  sea,  and  for  maritime  matters  in  general. 
His  interest  in  that  order  of  things  dates  from  the  earli- 
est days  of  his  boyhood,  when,  as  already  recorded,  he 
played  at  being  Admiral  of  a  numberless  toy -fleet  on  the 
tranquil  waters  of  the  "  Heiligen-See  "  at  Potsdam.  No 
other  German  Ruler  has  ever  given  so  much  thought 
and  attention  to  naval  matters,  or  acquired  so  much 
knowledge  in  that  quarter,  which  is  just  why  he  can 
stand  on  the  dripping  deck  of  a  pitching  and  rolling  ship 
and  laugh. 

Familiarity  proverbially  brings  contempt  for  danger 
of  all  kinds. 

To  crash  into  the  sea  at  full  speed  is  far  from  being 
an  unpleasant  sensation — for  people  blessed  with  those 
convenient  members  called  sea-legs — and  to  watch  each 
separate  breaker  as  it  leaps  over  the  bow  and  washes 
aft  in  a  delicious  smother  of  prismatic  color.  I  heard, 
once,  a  naval  officer  who  had  cruised  with  the  Emperor, 
conclusively  remark  that  he  is  "ike  right  sort" — a  thing 
I  knew  before  being  told — as  also  that  he  is  what  the 
British  tar  calls  very  graphically,  "a  handy  man."  Any- 
way, this  eminently  versatile  Monarch  certainly  carries 
with  him,  wherever  he  goes,  the  brisk  atmosphere  of  the 
sea  and  its  influence,  which  tightens  a  man's  muscles 
and  teaches  him  to  observe  the  outward  signs  of  nature 
and  of  the  human  race  as  well.  One  encounters  such 
examples  of  old  Father  Ocean's  tarry  teachings  even  in 
the  life  of  many  a  simple  sailor,  and  such  encounters 
are  invariably  pleasing. 

The  Northern  sea-coast  is  not  lovely,  indeed,  politeness 

231 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

alone  prevents  one  from  frankly  calling  it  ugly,  in  the 
cold,  wind-swept,  yellowish  nakedness  of  its  endless  sand- 
dunes.  Everywhere,  as  far  as  the  eye  can  reach  inland, 
there  are  mostly  sand-dunes,  bounded  here  and  there  on 
the  horizon-line  by  low  pine  and  juniper-scrub  fringed 
with  thin,  scraggy,  maritime  vegetation,  which  is  shaken 
by  the  wind  like  the  hair  of  drowning  creatures,  and  is 
sometimes  almost  hidden  out  of  sight  by  the  fine,  drifting 
sand,  which  moves  eternally  to  and  fro  in  imitation  of 
the  neighboring  waves. 

Such  a  combination  looks  rather  forlorn  even  in  the 
height  of  summer,  when  the  water  consents  on  occasion 
to  be  blue  and  the  eternal  dunes  borrow  a  more  golden 
tint  from  the  reflected  sun-rays ;  but  to  those  who  have 
been  born  in  that  neighborhood,  the  wellnigh  colorless 
uniformity  of  the  landscape,  the  pearly  light  which 
broods  over  these  deserts,  have  their  undeniable  charm, 
rendered  marvellously  precious  by  the  fact  that  these 
monotonous  plains  speak  to  them  of  home.  Moreover, 
it  is  a  famous  background — seaground  if  you  prefer  it — 
to  set  off  yachts,  taut,  trim,  and  sparkling  with  fresh 
paint  and  polished  brass — which  is  the  enviable  and 
permanent  condition  of  all  Emperor  William's  sailing 
or  steam  vessels. 

The  Friesian  Islands,  the  Bay  of  Kiel,  those  of  Dantzig, 
and  of  Pomerania,  Riigen  the  Fair,  the  deeply  scalloped 
shores  of  West  and  of  East  Prussia,  indented  and  varied 
by  glassy  sheets  of  land-locked,  motionless  water,  where 
long-legged,  solemn  herons  stand  mournfully — all  these 
places  are  inspected  in  turn  by  those  luxurious  craft, 
whereon  the  strong  individuality  of  William  is  so  clearly 
discernible,  and  where  even  far  more  than  on  a  line  o' 
battle-ship  everything  seems  to  fit  into  place  —  every 
man  into  his  duties. 


CHAPTER  X 

THERE  is  one  human  being  within  Germany's  fair 
Empire  who  is  not  at  all  awed  by  Germany's  stern  and 
imposing  Ruler — one,  and  only  one,  I  make  bold  to  state. 
This  audacious  being  is  a  brisk  little  lady,  very  quick 
and  graceful,  but  not  in  the  least  fussy,  possessed  of  an 
air  of  quiet  and  unshakable  confidence,  a  silvery  voice, 
a  light,  fairy -like  form,  an  elastic,  joyous  step — such  as  is 
of  more  service  to  a  woman  wherever  she  may  go,  and 
whoever  she  may  be,  than  the  most  enticing  beauty — 
long,  thick,  silky  golden  hair,  a  pair  of  big,  merry,  reck- 
less blue  eyes,  an  immense  amount  of  mischief  and  of 
dauntless  pluck,  and  the  best  little  heart  in  the  world. 
"Voila!"  I  have  named  "  Prinzesschen,"  the  seventh 
child  and  only  daughter  of  His  Majesty  Emperor  Will- 
iam II. 

This  charming  little  Princess,  who  is  hurrying  through 
life  and  gathering  huge  enjoyment  from  the  process, 
practical  like  her  illustrious  papa,  always  cheerful,  and 
universally  adored,  is  exceedingly  astute,  and  is  versed 
in  the  difficult,  and  until  her  advent  quite  undiscovered, 
art  of  leading  this  illustrious  parent  by  a  silken  thread 
of  extreme  tenuity,  wherever  it  may  be  the  wish  of  his 
leader  to  make  him  go. 

"Prinzesschen"  is,  if  I  am  to  tell  the  unvarnished 
truth,  rather  a  handful,  and  she  manages  her  " Papa- 
chen" — as  she  calls  him — with  vast  spirit  and  a  blithe 
and  most  amusing  indifference  to  the  sterner  and  grim- 
mer sides  of  this  august  Monarch's  nature. 

233 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

She  is  wont  to  remark,  in  the  pretty,  idiomatic,  and 
somewhat  slangy  English  she  speaks  in  preference  to 
German — which  she  declares  to  be  a  less  "distinguished" 
language — that  when  " Papachen"  is  away  it  is  "jolly 
slow  work"  for  her  to  be  at  home !  She  adores  her  moth- 
er, but  her  father  she  absolutely  idolizes,  and  the  feeling 
is  reciprocated  by  the  Emperor,  who  confesses  with  a 
somewhat  shamefaced  and  wholly  delightful  smile  that 
he  is  most  lamentably  at  the  mercy  of  this  tyrannical 
little  lady. 

Her  wholesale  optimism  positively  seems  to  take  his 
breath  away.  She  makes  her  multifarious  demands 
upon  his  time  and  person  with  a  certain  careless 
"aplomb"  which  must  unquestionably  prove  somewhat 
disconcerting  to  his  autocratic  habits.  She  is  a  little 
witch,  bewilderingly  changeable,  at  one  moment  a  mere 
baby,  and  in  the  next  quite  preternaturally  wise,  now  a 
heedless  tomboy,  a  second  later  a  proud  woman  of  the 
world,  appearing  to  know  far  more  of  that  abode  of 
wisdom  than  she  well  can! 

Her  delicate  coloring  comes  and  goes  with  every  new 
impression;  her  very  eyes  seem  to  continually  alter  in 
hue  and  even  shape,  clouding  or  brightening,  narrowing 
or  widening  with  each  different  mood,  in  the  most  allur- 
ing fashion.  She  is  at  the  beginning  of  that  brief  period 
of  a  feminine  existence  wherein  she  dares  to  state  quite 
clearly  and  openly  what  she  wants,  and  she  decidedly 
makes  the  most  of  it;  moreover,  when  she  is  chided — 
which  does  not  often  occur,  for  she  is,  in  the  main,  a 
thoroughly  good  little  Princess  —  she  takes  this  mild 
form  of  remonstrance  with  demurely  closed  lips,  as  if 
the  only  retort  she  could  think  of  was  hardly  fit  for 
enunciation,  nods  an  airy  acquiescence,  greatly  superior 
to  any  excuse  or  argument  she  could  possibly  put 
forward,  and  flits  away  with  the  lightness  of  breeze- 

234 


A  LESSON  IN  STRATEGY! 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

blown  thistledown  to  seek  other  causes  of  contra- 
vention. 

When  she  wants  something  very  badly  indeed  "  Prin- 
zcsschen's"  voice  becomes  strangely  deep  and  she  speaks 
with  immense  solemnity,  her  rosy  face  adopts  an  ex- 
tremely sober  expression,  and  she  has  a  very  effective 
way  of  dropping  her  thickly  fringed  eyelids.  When  her 
demand  is  rejected  her  eyes  cloud,  and  a  kind  of  scorn, 
a  kind  of  pity,  and  a  kind  of  weary  longanimity  look 
from  them.  This  is  her  attitude  when  it  is  not  of  "  Pa- 
pachen"  that  she  is  asking  something.  In  his  case 
affairs  proceed  on  different  lines,  for  with  him  she  is 
most  adorably  coquettish  and  alluring,  while  her  tac- 
tics would  have  done  honor  to  Moltke  himself. 

With  her  exquisitely  fine  golden  hair  waving  in  gleam- 
ing, crinkly  torrents  about  her  shoulders,  she  curls  her- 
self up  upon  his  knee  and  gazes  at  him  with  great  in- 
tentness  through  her  thick  lashes  —  a  veritable  little 
bundle  of  wisdom  and  tenderness — and  the  smile  in  the 
depths  of  her  father's  eyes  is  like  silent  music  to  her,  for 
she  understands  it  admirably,  and  attunes  her  own  ac- 
cordingly. 

He  is,  by-the-way,  very  speedily  laid  low  by  her  wiles, 
and  the  group  they  form  would  furnish  admirable  ma- 
terial for  a  delicious  "genre"  picture,  if  only  there  were 
nowadays  any  "genre"  painters  left  who  knew  how  to 
paint. 

Poor  Autocrat!  He  realizes  his  position  with  the 
painful  joyousness  of  self-defeat! 

When  very  stern  people  are  won  over  by  mere  coaxing, 
one  would  fancy  that  they  take  it  hard,  but  this  is  not 
the  case  here,  for  when  the  little  fairy,  having  gained  her 
point,  drifts  away  on  the  wings  of  delight,  I  am  told  that 
her  willing  victim  diversifies  the  humiliation  of  having 
been  so  easily  beaten  by  catches  of  laughter  that  have 
16  235 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

no  splenetic  ring  in  them,  as  a  vision  of  the  dainty  little 
triumphant  figure  of  his  all-conquering  daughter  recur- 
rently 

— flashes  upon  that  inward  eye 
Which  is  the  bliss  of  solitude!" 

"Prfasesscken"  as  her  father  did  before  her,  loves 
Potsdam,  because  there  she  is  as  free  as  the  wild  birds  of 
the  Imperial  park.  She  plays  on  the  brim  of  the  lake, 
gazing  occasionally  into  the  laughing,  dancing,  rippling 
waters,  blue  and  green  in  the  shade,  and  shot  with  silver 
and  golden  light,  like  fluorspar,  where  the  sun  touches 
them,  as  if  expecting  to  see  some  nix  or  mermaid  emerge 
from  its  depths  to  join  in  her  games,  for  her  oft-repeated 
declaration  that  she  is  "just  like  Papachen"  has  some 
sound  truths  in  it,  including  the  mixture  of  tireless 
energy  and  of  a  slight  mysticism — ordinarily  severely 
kept  in  the  background — which  characterizes  them  both. 

So,  in  her  quieter  moods,  " Prinzesschen"  loves  to  sit 
by  the  lake,  listening  to  the  music  of  the  water,  of  the 
overhanging  leaves,  and  of  the  birds  twittering  above 
her  head,  and  when  any  one  comes  to  disturb  her  at  those 
moments,  she  holds  up  a  warning  finger,  and  whispers 
a  peremptory  and  admonitory  "Sh-h-h,"  which  carries 
with  it  the  conviction  that  it  is  wise  to  leave  her  undis- 
turbed, for  to  quote  her  again,  "there  is  nobody  who 
really  understands  her  save  Papachen" 

An  attaching,  attractive,  delightful  child,  this  little 
"  Prinze  sschen"  and  no  wonder  that  she  should  be  the 
apple  of  her  father's  eye,  for  even  her  freaks  and  fancies 
are  lovable.  But  alas!  alas!  the  Autocrat  has  found 
his  master,  which  is  of  course  a  lamentable  catastrophe ! 

Atter"Papachen"  and  " Mamachen"  the  "grown-up  " 
of  whom  " Prinze sschen"  is  perhaps  the  fondest  is 
"  Uncle  Henry." 

This  charming  sailor-Prince  is  endowed  with  a  love  of 

236 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

fun  and  an  infectious  gayety  which  finds  immense  favor 
with  children.  He  is  the  life  of  the  Court  of  Berlin,  and 
can  be  characterized  by  the  graphic  German  adjective, 
"  leutselig,"  which  I  fear  is  as  untranslatable  as  "  gemuth- 
lichf"  The  Emperor  himself  is  never  so  good  tempered 
and  cheery  as  when  he  has  his  brother  near  him,  for  a 
real,  deep,  and  lasting  affection  exists  between  these  two 
men,  dissimilar  in  a  great  many  ways. 

Prince  Henry's  lips  are  almost  always  curling  in 
laughter,  his  eyes  dancing  with  merriment,  when  he  is 
at  home ;  in  an  instant  his  whole  face  lights  up  and  he 
becomes  a  mere  boy,  playing  with  his  children  and  those 
of  his  brother  as  if  he  enjoyed  the  romp  on  his  own  ac- 
count. One  of  his  delights  is  also  to  give  himself  body 
and  soul  to  the  practice  of  harmless  practical  jokes, 
which  have  the  gift  of  invariably  making  his  Imperial 
brother  laugh  heartily. 

Prince  Henry  possesses  the  happy  power  of  devoting 
his  entire  attention  to  whatever  work  or  pleasure  he 
may,  for  the  moment,  have  in  hand,  which  is,  I  have 
noticed,  a  peculiarity  of  sailors.  Moreover,  the  more 
one  sees  of  Prince  Henry  the  stronger  grows  one's  admira- 
tion for  him,  for  each  day  one  discovers  some  new  proof 
of  his  though tfulness  for  others,  forgetfulness  of  self, 
and  the  extreme  goodness  of  heart  and  simplicity  of 
manner  which  endear  him  to  all  those  with  whom  he 
comes  in  contact. 

The  great  and  unswerving  affection  which  the  Em- 
peror bears  this  younger  brother  gives  undeniable  evi- 
dence of  the  real  magnanimity  of  the  Kaiser's  character, 
for  it  is  a  sad  but  a  true  fact,  that  everything  that  could 
possibly  have  been  done  in  the  past  to  render  him  jeal- 
ous of  Prince  Henry  was  done.  He,  Prince  Henry,  was 
always  favored  at  the  expense  of  his  elder  brother — in 
fact,  he  was  so  constantly  and  openly  treated  as  a  privi- 

237 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

leged  favorite  that  any  but  a  very  noble  and  coura- 
geous mind  would  have  been  soured  against  him  for  all 
eternity. 

There  are  many  sorts  of  courage  in  this  world — that 
of  the  soldier,  the  sailor,  the  explorer,  the  courage  that 
is  strongly  dependent  on  emulation,  that  which  is  purely 
defensive,  that,  again,  which  faces  solitude  and  con- 
tinuous risks  with  steady  intrepidity ;  but  higher  than 
all  those  is  the  wonderful  courage  of  the  man  or  wom- 
an who  faces,  without  a  murmur  or  pang  of  jealousy, 
a  long-continued  course  of  injustice;  that  is  different 
from  all  other  courages,  for  it  comes  direct  from  Heaven. 

But  there  is  a  sad  lack  of  dramatic  effect  about  awk- 
ward situations  when  thus  courageously  accepted.  The 
brothers  did  not  scowl  at  each  other,  they  never  assumed 
defiant  attitudes  and  hurled  anathemas  at  one  another's 
heads,  no  sinister  glances  were  exchanged,  no  sombre 
plots  hatched;  truly  the  thing  was  decidedly  tame, 
for  William  not  only  succeeded  in  retaining  intact 
the  full  amount  of  affection  he  had  always  given  his 
brother,  but  went  even  farther  than  that,  for  his  sight 
remained  so  clear  throughout  that  he  did  Prince  Henry 
the  rare  justice  of  realizing  how  innocent  he  had  al- 
ways remained  of  intentionally  attracting  towards  him- 
self the  marked  and  constant  tokens  of  favoritism 
which  were  untiringly  heaped  upon  him. 

Alas!  why  is  it  that  I  should  be  so  ill-advised  as  to 
allow  truth  to  trim  my  lamp,  sober  fact  to  limit  my  nar- 
row little  path,  and  to  have,  therefore,  to  record  most 
solemnly  here  that  nothing  dramatic  occurred,  and  that 
there  never  was  even  so  much  as  a  cloud  between  Will- 
iam and  Henry.  Indeed,  the  former  plodded  on  his 
weary  way,  fighting  bravely  and  doggedly,  quietly  and 
wittingly,  against  odds  sometimes  so  disproportionate 
as  to  render  one  sceptical  regarding  the  ways  and  de- 

238 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

signs  of  Providence,  and  to-day  he  and  his  only  brother 
are  what  they  have  always  been — namely,  the  most  loyal 
and  devoted  of  friends. 

Mutual  respect  has  an  important  place  in  the  love 
they  bear  each  other,  and  only  too  often  brotherly  af- 
fection is  devoid  of  this  quality.  Even  when  William 
knew  that  his  younger  brother  was  more  beloved  than 
himself,  he  was  content  that  it  should  be  so — proud  of 
his  cleverness,  his  quickness,  of  his  brilliant  achieve- 
ments, while  Henry  was  always  fully  aware  that  his 
grimmer,  sterner  brother  was  a  man  such  as  one  encoun- 
ters but  seldom  in  this  weary  worldly  pilgrimage.  The 
consequence  of  this  mutual  appreciation  is  that  there 
is  in  their  intercourse  a  peculiar  half-expressed  defer- 
ence for  each  other's  feelings,  which  is  of  rare  and  beau- 
tiful quality. 

Their  paths  in  life  divided  at  a  very  early  age,  and  as 
each  has  pressed  on  with  firm  and  plucky  strides  upon 
his  predestined  road,  the  material  distance  between 
them  has  grown  apace,  but  entirely  without  their  ever 
drifting  apart  in  heart  or  soul.  Withal  the  deeply  rooted 
affection  between  them  has  remained  untouched,  un- 
spoiled, and  the  wonderfully  strong  tie  of  kinship  and 
of  genuine  sympathy  has  never  been  weakened  by  the 
strain  of  years  or  of  distance. 

All  the  Emperor's  sisters,  excepting  Princess  Char- 
lotte (Hereditary  Princess  of  Saxe-Meiningen),  who  is 
only  a  year  younger,  having  been  born  much  later 
than  himself — that  is,  Princess  Victoria  (Princess  of 
Schaumburg-Lippe)  in  1866,  Princess  Sophia  (Crown 
Princess  of  Greece)  in  1870,  and  Princess  Marguerite 
(Princess  of  Hesse  -  Altenbourg)  in  1872 — were  never 
companions  for  him. 

With  regard  to  Princess  Charlotte,  it  was  different, 
for  throughout  their  early  youth  they  were  much 

239 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

thrown  together.  Indeed,  in  the  days  when  they  were 
both  very  young,  the  Emperor  showed  a  strong  sym- 
pathy for  this  sister,  since  she  shared  with  him  the  dis- 
advantage of  being  severely  unappreciated,  and  his 
heart  naturally  warmed  towards  the  poor  little  girl, 
who,  like  himself,  was  treated  with  so  extreme  a  degree 
of  strictness,  snubbed  on  every  occasion,  and  made  to 
feel  that  the  other  children  were  looked  upon  as  vastly 
superior  to  them  in  every  respect. 

The  youth  of  poor  Charlotte  was  not  much  happier 
than  his  own,  excepting  for  the  fact  that  she  did  not 
take  her  troubles  as  seriously  to  heart  as  he  did.  She 
was  a  graceful,  pretty  girl,  slender,  and  well  made,  with 
finely  modelled  hands  and  feet,  and  an  expressive  and 
interesting  countenance.  Her  eyes,  large  and  vivacious, 
shone  with  wit;  her  mouth,  not  small  but  charmingly 
curved,  showed  when  laughing  two  rows  of  lovely  teeth ; 
the  nose,  which  was  too  long,  was  delicately  shaped,  and 
she  had  a  profusion  of  soft  bright  hair  curving  in  graceful 
waves  around  her  little  ears. 

Very  merry  and  lively  was  she  when  not  too  frequent- 
ly repressed  and  scolded;  indeed,  a  flood  of  uncontrol- 
lable activity,  mental  and  physical,  seemed  to  well  up 
in  her  at  such  times,  and  she  looked  as  if  she  were  cast- 
ing about  for  an  outlet  to  this  abrupt  and  vehement 
ardor,  coupled  with  what  seemed  a  torment  of  uneasi- 
ness and  acute  impatience. 

Her  marriage  was  something  of  a  surprise  to  the  Ber- 
linese,  for  Prince  Bernhardt  of  Saxe-Meiningen,  although 
a  charming  cavalier,  was  not  wealthy,  nor  did  he  occupy  a 
very  lofty  position,  and  it  was  rumored,  moreover,  that 
love  had  very  little  to  do  on  either  side  with  this  union, 
which  estranged  the  Princess  from  her  favorite  brother, 
and  separated  them  during  the  greater  portion  of  each 
year.  However,  to  the  Princess  there  was  an  obvious  ad- 

240 


' 


CHARLOTTE,    HEREDITARY    PRINCESS    OF    SAXE-MEININGEN, 
ELDEST    SISTER    OF    THE    EMPEROR 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

vantage  in  becoming  emancipated  and  free  to  follow  her 
own  tastes,  and  to  this  she  sacrificed  everything  else. 

Princess  Charlotte  is  to-day  still  one  of  the  most 
marked  personalities  of  the  German  Court.  She  has 
not  been  always,  since  her  marriage,  on  the  best  of 
terms  with  her  Imperial  brother,  but  their  alleged 
quarrels  have,  as  all  the  rest,  been  greatly  exaggerated. 

She  is  a  brilliantly  clever  woman,  endowed  with  a 
great  deal  of  satirical  self-possession,  and  has  an  odd 
habit  of  replying  to  merely  mental  questions,  or  of  al- 
luding calmly  to  unuttered  comments,  which  is  rather 
startling,  and  conies  from  a  very  unusual  power  of  divina- 
tion, and  from  a  great  facility  in  reading  character. 
Many  people  find  her  extremely  fascinating,  and  she  is 
undoubtedly  "chic" — be  this  trivial  expression  kindly 
forgiven — she  is  also  a  very  well  read  and  highly  culti- 
vated woman,  betraying  her  deep  knowledge  of  many 
things  in  a  casual  fashion,  as  if  entirely  free  from  any 
desire  to  impose  it  upon  or  to  share  it  with  others,  and, 
although  mockery  and  sarcasm  lurk  in  most  of  her  say- 
ings, she  is,  however,  wherever  she  goes,  generally  speak- 
ing, the  centre  of  attraction  and  the  object  of  much 
homage. 

It  is  known  to  very  few  that  the  Emperor,  while  still 
Prince  William,  spent  two  weeks  in  Paris  in  the  summer 
of  1878 — the  year  of  the  great  Exhibition — with  Princess 
Charlotte  and  her  husband.  He  was  attended  by  Major 
von  Liebenau  and  Lieutenant  von  Jacobi,  and  the  whole 
party  observed  throughout  their  stay  the  strictest  in- 
cognito, carefully  avoiding  the  German  Embassy,  and 
living  very  quietly  and  "bourgeoisement";  Prince  Will- 
iam and  his  gentlemen  at  the  Hotel  Mirabeau,  while 
Prince  Bernhardt  and  Princess  Charlotte,  attended  by 
Countess  Hedwig  von  Briihl  and  Count  Gotz  von  Seck- 
endorff,  stayed  at  the  Hotel  Chatham. 

241 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

Prince  William  enjoyed  every  moment  of  this  little 
pleasure  trip,  from  the  time  when  the  train,  wherein  he 
travelled  quite  unobtrusively  in  his  character  of  private 
gentleman,  first  began  to  steam  through  the  flower-stud- 
ded pastures  of  France,  to  the  minute  when  he  had  to 
bid  farewell  to  this  fertile  land,  for  which  he  has  always 
entertained  a  deep  sympathy. 

He  was  only  nineteen  years  old  then,  and  took  a  boy- 
ish delight  in  making  himself  personally  acquainted 
with  its  luxuriant  beauty,  the  low,  thatch-roofed  cot- 
tages smothered  in  verdure,  the  beautiful  old  church- 
spires  raising  their  lacelike  stone-work  above  a  sea  of 
foliage,  and  the  prosperous  farm-houses,  of  which  he  had 
read  and  heard  so  much. 

The  ancient,  gray  mills  dipping  their  antique  paddle- 
wheels  into  the  foam-broidered  waters  of  swift  brooks, 
or  stretching  their  gaunt  arms  and  weather-beaten  can- 
vas sails  to  the  flower-scented  breeze,  the  aged,  square 
towers  buried  in  a  labyrinth  of  veteran  trees — the  whole 
landscape,  so  clear,  bright,  and  full  of  lovely  color,  pleased 
his  artistic  eye,  and  when  he  reached  great,  glittering 
Paris  his  joy  knew  no  bounds.  He  was  enchanted  with 
the  novelty  of  it  all. 

The  weather  was  already  warm,  roses  were  being 
trundled  by  the  million  through  the  brilliant  streets, 
filling  the  air  with  their  fragrance,  and  he  wandered 
about  "en  touriste,"  gazing  up  rapturously  at  the  splen- 
did twin  towers  of  Notre-Dame,  the  massive  beauty  of 
the  Arc  de  Triomphe,  the  slender  elegance  of  the  Colonne 
Vendome,  or  loitered  on  the  great  bridges  spanning  the 
Seine,  to  watch  the  historic  river  flowing  rapidly  and 
eddying  round  the  stone  piers  beneath  him  with  a  liquid, 
refreshing  sound. 

All  the  tragedies,  the  mysteries,  the  passions,  and  the 
sorrows  of  the  "city  of  revolutions"  seemed  to  pass 

242 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

murmuring  through  his  imagination,  as  he  stood  upon 
the  thronged  pavement  during  these  whimsical  "fldn- 
eries."  The  Louvre  looming  up  in  the  silvery  light  of 
the  moon  made  him  think  of  the  fateful  night  of  St. 
Bartholomew,  and  of  his  illustrious  ancestor  Coligny, 
for  the  face  of  the  superb  building  looks  grim,  inscru- 
table, and  ruthless  in  this  rather  theatrical  illumination, 
like  a  face  confronting  everything  in  the  world  without 
fear,  without  pity,  without  remorse ;  and  even  when  he 
saw  it  at  noon,  with  the  glory  of  the  sunrays  dancing 
upon  it  and  bringing  out  the  exquisite  delicacy  of  its 
carvings  and  unrivalled  ornamentation,  he  received  from 
it  the  same  impression. 

Versailles  also  took  a  strong  hold  upon  his  fancy! 
There  his  grandfather  had  been  proclaimed  German 
Emperor,  but  this  was  not  its  chief  interest  in  the  eyes 
of  a  young  man  whose  innate  delicacy  of  feeling  slightly 
recoiled  at  this  unnecessarily  triumphant  act,  which, 
counselled  and  implacably  urged  by  Bismarck — it  had 
not  by  any  means  met  with  the  unalloyed  approval  of 
William  I. — had  caused  so  much  additional  humiliation 
to  the  vanquished. 

No!  to  Prince  William,  Louis  Quatorze's  stupendous 
palace  seemed  filled  yet  with  the  sound  of  long-vanished 
footsteps.  The  marvellous  fountains  of  the  park,  scat- 
tering prismatic  drops  on  the  deliciously  carved  lips  of 
their  deep  basins,  fascinated  him  with  their  dim  sug- 
gestion of  a  gentle  rain  of  tears  falling  continually  in 
memory  of  all  that  was  dead  and  gone.  He  could  see 
in  the  vast  halls  and  salons  of  the  Castle  itself,  naught 
but  the  shadows  of  long  ago  falling  aslant  the  polished 
floors,  and  he  was  carried  away  completely  by  the 
thought  of  what  had  been. 

It  was  only  natural  that  to  this  enthusiastic  imagina- 
tion of  nineteen  it  should  have  appeared  as  if  the  gra- 

243 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

cious  forms  of  La  Valliere  and  of  Montespan  were  still 
roaming  about  the  flower-gardens,  as  if  the  clinking  spurs 
of  d'Artagnan  still  resounded  on  the  moss-grown  pave- 
ment of  the  "Cour  d'Honneur,"  while  the  moist,  per- 
fumed breath  of  the  "  Plaisaunce"  appeared  to  the 
Prussian  Prince  like  a  sad,  live  thing,  striving  to  edge 
its  weary  way  among  a  sacrilegious  multitude  of  sight- 
seers and  the  flowing  tides  of  modern  life,  towards  the 
few  who  could  feel  and  understand. 

The  "Exposition  Universelle"  interested  him,  "mais  ce 
n'etait  plus  la  meme  chose. ' '  He  enjoyed  it  all  well  enough, 
and  with  his  ever  -  consuming  thirst  for  learning  he 
made  much  of  the  hours  he  spent  there,  putting  them 
to  excellent  use,  but  the  past  of  France  was  what  electri- 
fied him.  It  brought  him  new  and  delightful  sensations 
to  study  it  on  the  spot,  to  stand  as  it  were  on  the  edge 
of  vanished  centuries,  looking  back  on  long  vistas  of 
experiences  and  adventures  redolent  with  courage  and 
glory. 

This  was  what  he  liked. 

To  go  and  hear  Sarah  Bernhardt's  melodious  voice  in 
"  Hernani,"  to  lunch  with  Sir  Richard  Wallace  at  Baga- 
telle, to  drive  in  the  Bois  de  Boulogne  as  a  mere  unit  amid 
a  crowd  of  ardent  pleasure-seekers,  greedy  financiers, 
noisy  journalists,  canary -haired  "cocottes,"  bumptious 
politicians,  loudly  garbed  "  Rastaqouaires,"  was  novel 
and  amusing,  but  it  did  not  stir  him  as  did  his  retro- 
spective wanderings  through  old  Paris,  although  he  felt 
throughout  the  strange  attraction  of  crowds,  and  the 
infinite  possibilities  of  adventure  that  lurked  therein. 

The  young  Princes  and  the  Princess  did  modern  Paris 
very  thoroughly,  piloted  by  the  late  Count  Arco  and  by 
my  present  husband,  who  had  been  one  of  William's 
boyhood  friends  and  playmates.  They  even  went  up  in 
the  huge  "  Balon-Captif"  tethered  on  the  Place  des 

244 


BERNHARDT,      HEREDITARY      PRINCE      OF      SAXE-MEININGEN, 

HUSBAND     OF     PRINCESS    CHARLOTTE,   THE    EMPEROR*S 

ELDEST    SISTER 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

Tuileries,  but  such  experiences,  although  furnishing  a  cer- 
tain glamour  of  excitement  and  considerable  "  imprevu  " 
can  scarcely  be  reckoned  among  the  romantic  aspects 
of  their  sojourn. 

Being  given  the  fact  that  their  presence  was  entirely 
unknown  to  the  official  world  and  to  the  public,  it  is 
interesting  to  speculate  as  to  what  might  have  hap- 
pened had  the  frivolous  Parisian  populace,  whose  sym- 
pathies ever  change  and  flow  this  way  and  that,  now 
circling  about  one  personage,  now  about  another,  dis- 
covered the  Prince's  identity.  Would  the  feeling  of 
the  moment  have  made  of  him  a  victim  or  a  hero  ? 

In  those  days  the  hatred  for  everything  German  was 
still  very  bitter  in  the  capital  of  France — indeed,  among 
the  "bourgeoisie"  and  the  working-classes  it  had  some- 
thing unutterably  sordid,  coarse,  and  brutal  in  its  tenor; 
the  lower  and  middle-class  French  could  not  behave  de- 
cently to  any  German-speaking  person  then,  and  had  they 
been  translated  "en  bloc"  to  the  Heavenly  City — horrible 
thought ! — they  would  have  wandered  through  its  gold- 
en streets  seeking  what  Teuton  they  might  insult  and 
possibly  devour.  Indeed,  there  was  a  sort  of  supreme 
obstinacy  in  their  inability  to  refrain  from  invective,  or 
to  listen  to  the  dictates  of  reason  and  of  decency.  Was 
not  the  late  King  Alfonso  XII.  of  Spain  subjected  to  all 
sorts  of  indignities,  some  years  later,  by  the  Parisian 
"canaille"  solely  on  account  of  his  having  been  ap- 
pointed honorary  colonel  of  a  German  Lancer  Regiment 
by  Emperor  William  I.  ? 

On  the  other  hand,  the  bravery  shown  by  Prince  Will- 
iam in  thus  coming  to  place  himself  in  the  lion's  mouth 
might  have  caused  one  of  those  revulsions  of  feeling 
which  no  one  can  foretell,  and  Paris  might  have  gone 
down  before  him  with  that  sudden  and  complete  pros- 
tration of  itself  before  a  new  idol  which  is  so  character- 

245 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

istic  of  it,  and  is  so  exceedingly  misleading  to  the  idols 
inclined  to  imagine  that  their  apotheoses  will  be  eternal. 

Yet,  as  a  rule,  the  subterranean  forces  of  Paris  are 
more  apt  to  display  themselves  unpleasantly,  and  to 
pour  out  of  their  sombre  retreats,  like  snakes  when 
they  scent  prey.  The  spectacle  is  not  exhilarating  or 
comforting,  nor  is  Paris  now  a  pleasing  city  for  Royal- 
ties to  visit,  either  incognito  or  otherwise,  for  common- 
sense  has  long  ere  this  hidden  its  diminished  head  be- 
fore the  sovereign  will  of  its  gutters  and  slums. 

However,  Prince  William  was  not  a  man  to  be  moved 
by  considerations  of  prudence,  for,  as  he  himself  says, 
"if  one  were  to  take  into  serious  consideration  the  dan- 
gers represented  by  Nihilistic  bombs,  Socialistic  pro- 
jectiles, and  the  inconstancy  of  mobs,  why,  one  would 
have  no  time  to  do  one's  work."  So  he  calmly  con- 
tinued to  roam  about  those  corners  of  Paris  which  re- 
tain the  memories  and  the  flavor  of  other  days,  and  are 
untouched  as  yet  by  all  the  changes  of  our  prosaic,  lev- 
elling, demolishing  period,  and  he  spent  many  a  summer 
afternoon  wandering  in  those  mazes  of  narrow  streets 
that  are  practically  unknown  to  the  ordinary  tourist. 
Truly  brave  people  have  an  immense  scorn  for  the  ills 
that  the  populace  may  wreak.  There  were  many  such 
who  ascended  the  steps  of  the  guillotine  in  the  Reign  of 
Terror,  without  giving  the  abject,  unwashed  mob  below 
the  gratification  of  being  able  to  flatter  itself  that  the 
breath  of  those  doomed  aristocrats  came  in  the  least 
more  quickly,  or  that  their  pulses  were  in  the  least  un- 
even. 

I  do  not  suppose  that  all  the  visits  William  has  paid 
to  the  other  great  capitals  of  Europe  since  his  accession 
to  the  Throne  have  given  him  the  pleasure  afforded  by 
this  secret  trip  to  Paris.  An  official  visit  there  is  still 
quite  out  of  the  question,  although  the  kindliness  of 

246 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

his  attitude  towards  that  once  so  great  country  ought 
to  have  borne  better  fruit  than  the  small  and  mean 
acrimony  with  which  it  was  met  in  most  quarters. 

His  conciliatory  intentions  have  been  and  are  still 
very  marked,  and  it  is  a  pity  that  France  should  have 
so  entirely  forgotten  her  ancient  traditions  of  perfect 
and  gracious  "courtoisie"  and  the  politeness  which  a 
civilized  people  should  consider  it  an  honor  to  display 
towards  an  illustrious  and  generously  inclined  Sovereign. 

It  is  true  that  a  nation  which  allows  itself  to  be  in- 
fluenced by  politicians  such  as  Millerand,  Cassagnac, 
Combes,  Georges  Berry,  Maurice  Barres,  Edouard  Lock- 
roy,  and  that  interesting  personage,  Rochefort — "en 
voila  pour  tons  les  gouts" — can  no  longer  be  regarded 
as  sane,  or  even  as  able  to  determine  what  is  seemly 
and  what  is  not,  else  it  would  be  patent  even  to  French 
eyes  that  as  Emperor  William  was  eleven  years  old  in 
1870-71,  it  is  singularly  illogical  to  make  him  responsible 
for  the  "faits  d'armes"  of  the  generations  preceding 
him,  or  for  the  deeds  that  may  or  may  not  have  been 
committed  by  Germans  while  on  French  territory  during 
his  childhood.  All  this  is  puerile  and  futile,  and  cal- 
culated to  give  one  but  a  poor  opinion  of  the  so-called 
progress  of  civilization!  Francois  I.  thought  it  not  be- 
neath his  dignity  to  accord  a  magnificent  reception  to 
Charles  V.,  whose  prisoner  he  had  been,  nor  to  show 
him  all  the  respect  and  deference  due  to  an  honored 
guest;  but  France's  present  "excess  of  patriotism"  does 
not  permit  her  to  imitate  so  chivalrous  an  example. 

One  can  scarcely  be  surprised,  however,  since  a  na- 
tion that  destroys  its  altars  and  makes  war  upon  harm- 
less nuns  and  priests,  nay,  expels  from  its  midst  with 
unparalleled  brutality  the  "P elites  Soeurs  des  Pauvres" 
and  the  " Freres  de  Saint  Vincent  de  Paul"  whose  sole 
occupation  and  aim  in  life  was  to  nurse  the  poor  and 

247 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

sick,  and  to  beg  from  the  wealthy  wherewithal  to  assist 
those  in  need,  is  surely  on  a  precipitous  downward 
grade,  leading  to  the  final  abyss  of  anarchy  and  disso- 
lution. 

Never  has  Emperor  William  done  a  kinder,  a  wiser, 
or  a  more  diplomatic  thing  than  when  he  opened  wide 
the  doors  of  Germany  to  the  religious  congregations  ex- 
pelled from  France;  because,  after  all,  let  people  say 
what  they  will,  they  have  been  cruelly  treated  in  their 
own  land,  which  strangely  forgets  that,  to  say  the  very 
least,  it  is  in  monasteries  that  the  refinements  of  civili- 
zation have  originated,  that  the  fine  arts  and  sciences 
have  always  found  a  refuge,  and  that  the  primor- 
dial wealth  of  ungrateful  France  had  its  root,  within  the 
walls  of  those  busy,  untiring  "  Confreries ,"  who  taught 
the  peasants,  in  days  of  long  ago,  the  precious  secrets 
of  wood-lore  and  agriculture. 

Our  modern  times  are  so  prosaic  and  so  absolutely 
devoid  of  charm,  and  the  life  most  people  lead  now  is  so 
unattractive  a  routine,  so  hurried,  so  material,  and  so 
gross  under  its  crackling  varnish,  that  truth  and  the 
past  are  generally  quite  ruthlessly  pushed  hand  in 
hand  to  the  wall.  Emperor  William  is  not  blinded, 
however,  by  the  intense  restlessness,  the  incessant  in- 
trigue, the  endless  conflicts  of  minds  and  beliefs  which 
characterize  our  epoch,  and  his  "haute  politique"  de- 
serves the  name  in  full,  for  it  is  wholly  innocent  of  all 
trace  of  "partipris." 

He  does  not  pledge  himself  to  one  side  or  another, 
but  takes  his  time,  and  looks  into  the  heart  of  a  ques- 
tion before  deciding  upon  it,  bringing  his  conscience  to 
bear  fully  upon  his  final  resolve.  His  policies  are  found- 
ed upon  real  conviction,  and  are  never  a  mere  mechani- 
cal repetition  of  what  others  have  thought  or  have 
done;  he  is  guided  simply  by  his  ideas  of  right  and 

248 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

wrong,  and  is  quite  unbiased.  Such  singleness  of  pur- 
pose and  honesty  of  research  are  things  too  meritorious 
in  themselves  to  need  encomium;  and  how  different 
they  are,  too,  from  the  rash  and  blind  acceptance  of  a 
policy  merely  inherited  or  advised,  which  so  frequently 
disfigures  the  conduct  of  a  "Chef  de  parti." 

Most  political  leaders  talk  a  great  deal,  but  in  their 
hearts  they  know  well  that  they  simply  try  to  patch 
up  what  is  amiss,  so  that  existing  circumstances  may 
last  out  their  own  time,  and  that  they  really  care  ex- 
traordinarily little  about  anything  else  that  may  come 
afterwards.  " Apres  nous  le  deluge!"  is  so  convenient  a 
maxim.  Now  William  II.  thinks  for  himself;  he  ear- 
nestly wishes  not  only  to  be  of  use  to  his  subjects  now, 
and  to  his  generation,  but  also  to  accomplish  much  that 
will  be  good  and  profitable  in  an  after-time.  None  bet- 
ter than  he  realize  the  priggishness,  the  pomposity,  and 
the  scientific  "wind-baggishness"  of  the  world's  present 
status,  but  none  have  known  so  well  how  to  squeeze 
out  what  good  the  modern  orange  may  contain  for  the 
benefit  of  his  own  people,  for  their  culture  and  their  edu- 
cation and  prosperity.  He  is  aware  that  the  food  must 
be  suited  to  the  eater.  His  policy  is  an  appeal  to  the 
people,  they  say?  Ah,  yes,  so  it  is,  no  doubt;  but  with 
what  consummate  art  does  he  lead  the  people  to  the 
table  whereon  the  banquet  he  has  prepared  for  them 
appetizingly  smokes! 

The  secret  of  statesmanship  is  to  bend  the  mutations 
of  the  nation's  will  to  one's  own;  is  it  not  so  ?  The  great 
statesman  does  not  admit  this,  of  course,  because  being 
a  great  statesman  he  knows  that  if  you  want  the  masses 
to  go  your  way,  it  is  best  and  wisest  to  allow  them  to 
believe  that  they  go  their  own.  That  is  where  clever- 
ness and  "doigte"  come  in,  and  that  is  just  the  sort  of 
delicate  political  "doigte"  that  the  Emperor  possesses! 

249 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

Whether  one  be  a  Sovereign  or  a  subject  it  is  work 
that  wins  the  day,  and  work  is  Emperor  William's  Pal- 
ladium. He  works  almost  without  cessation,  and  this 
is  the  secret  of  his  extraordinary  weight  and  influence, 
not  only  as  a  Monarch,  but,  as  a  man,  the  source  of  his 
extraordinarily  keen  and  diversified  knowledge.  Not 
content  with  a  mere  amateurish  and  superficial  infor- 
mation, he  probes  to  the  very  depths  of  his  studies  with 
quite  phenomenal  energy  and  perseverance.  There  is 
scarcely  a  subject  upon  which  he  is  not  well  informed; 
there  exist  professional  mechanics,  engineers,  chemists, 
architects,  archaeologists,  philologists,  and  scientists  of 
every  description  whose  breath  has  fairly  been  taken  away 
by  the  extraordinary  fashion  in  which  he  has  discussed 
with  each  of  them  his  own  speciality,  displaying  an  ac- 
curacy of  learning  and  information  which  seems  almost 
unexplainable,  being  given  that  he  is  comparatively 
speaking  a  young  man,  and  has  led  so  busy  a  life  that 
no  great  extent  of  time  can  have  been  devoted  to  the 
study  of  such  sciences. 

Indeed,  it  has  been  facetiously  stated  in  the  press  of 
many  lands  during  the  last  sixteen  years  that  the  Kaiser 
" knows  all  about  everything  that  exists!11  I  trust  that 
the  preceding  pages  may  have  convinced  my  readers 
that  there  is  more  than  a  spice  of  truth  in  this  peri- 
patetic joke,  since  no  one  possessing  the  full  use  of  his 
or  her  senses  can  deny  that  he  is  a  splendid  soldier,  an 
equally  good  sailor,  a  successful  sportsman,  a  musician 
of  no  mean  talent,  an  excellent  painter  and  draughts- 
man, a  first-class  writer  and  poet,  too — "a  ses  heures" 
— an  engineer  and  architect  of  considerable  ability,  be- 
sides being  a  scholar  of  repute  and  a  thorough  states- 
man, without  mentioning  the  fact  that  he  speaks  nine 
or  ten  languages  fluently,  and  is  one  of  the  most  elo- 
quent orators  of  modern  times. 

250 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

Several  of  these  languages  have  been  acquired  since 
his  accession  to  the  Throne,  and  amid  all  his  enormous 
stress  and  strain  of  business.  Swedish,  for  instance,  he 
learned — as  he  humorously  remarks — to  "spring  a  sur- 
prise" upon  his  cousin,  the  Crown  Prince  of  Sweden. 
And  surprised  the  Crown  Prince  most  emphatically  was 
when,  on  the  occasion  of  one  of  Emperor  William's  recent 
visits  to  King  Oscar's  dominions,  at  a  dinner  following 
some  shooting  on  the  splendid  game  preserves  of  Count 
Thott,  the  latter's  Imperial  guest  suddenly  volunteered  a 
remark  in  Swedish  to  the  effect  that  the  weather  had  been 
abominable  throughout  the  day,  but  he  hoped  it  would 
be  fairer  on  the  morrow!  All  the  Swedes  present  gazed 
at  the  Emperor  in  open-mouthed  amazement,  almost 
unable  to  believe  their  ears,  especially  when  William 
continued  to  converse  fluently  in  their  native  idiom, 
just  as  if  he  had  been  familiar  with  it  all  his  life.  Such 
a  delicate  compliment  was,  of  course,  highly  appreciated. 

How  he  ever  finds  time — as  he  does — to  devote  to 
music,  painting,  and  writing  is  a  question  as  yet  unsolved, 
and  how  a  man  of  his  temperament  can  submit  himself 
to  an  iron  routine  that  allows  but  very  limited  oppor- 
tunities for  recreation  and  amusement,  or  even  rest, 
would  be  equally  a  mystery  did  not  one  remember  that 
he  has  at  his  disposal  the  amulet  of  imagination,  which 
(can  instantaneously  transmute  the  baser  metal  of  duty 
into  poetic  gold,  even  as  it  made  unattractive  Sologne 
blossom  like  the  Vale  of  Kashmir  for  George  Sand,  and 
the  dreary  memory  of  the  frozen  desert  of  Poland  glitter 
like  a  dazzling  mirage  for  Chopin.  This  faculty  of  the 
true  artist  for  idealization  is  indeed  a  precious  gift, 
without  which  the  weary  load  of  unremitting  labor  that 
presses  upon  his  shoulders  would  weigh  tenfold  the 
heavier. 

Music  is  really  one  of  his  principal  relaxations.  He 
17  251 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

possesses  a  wonderfully  complete  and  valuable  musical 
library,  containing  numerous  volumes  of  the  printed 
and  manuscript  harmonies  of  four  centuries,  and  his 
knowledge  on  that  subject,  too,  is  remarkably  inti- 
mate. 

There  are  many — even  great  artists — who  are  apt  to 
be  at  fault  in  their  interpretation  of  music,  but  this  is  a 
reproach  which  cannot  be  addressed  to  him,  especially 
when  he  sings,  for  besides  being  gifted  with  a  very  good 
voice,  he  knows  exactly  how  a  melody  should  be  ren- 
dered; with  him  Apollo's  lyre  is  not  a  school-room  play- 
thing. 

His  principal  contribution  to  music  is  the  "Sang  am 
Aegir,"  a  "  Morceau"  of  great  power  and  originality, 
which  begins  with  the  words  "O  Aegir  Herr  der  Fluthen, 
dem  Nix  und  Nex  sick  beugt"  (O  Aegir,  Lord  of  the 
Waves,  whom  mermaids  and  mermen  revere).  The 
half  sad,  half  heroic  strain  of  the  melody  has  the  sense 
of  some  mystery  about  it,  of  something  concealed  yet 
suggested,  which  is  very  fascinating  and  attaching,  and 
it  is  wonderful  to  realize  that  it  was  created  by  a  man 
who  lives  for  the  greater  portion  of  his  life  in  an  atmos- 
phere of  practical  politics  and  heavy  cares,  obliged  to 
put  forward  at  every  instant  the  hardest,  keenest  intel- 
lectuality in  order  to  cope  with  the  difficulties  of  his 
lofty  office. 

When,  after  an  evening  devoted  to  melody,  he  is  met 
in  the  early  morning  by  the  heaps  of  official  dry-as- 
dust  papers  covering  his  writing-table,  he  must  some- 
times, for  all  his  philosophy  and  extreme  adaptability 
to  the  surroundings  of  the  moment,  sigh  at  this  brusque 
re-entrance  into  a  land  of  prose,  where  nothing  roman- 
tic can  possibly  intrude  itself,  and  which  must  occasion- 
ally seem  insupportably  absurd  to  him  in  its  pompous 
fret  and  fumings. 

252 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

One  accomplishment  of  the  Emperor's  which  is  char- 
acteristic of  his  tastes,  as  regards  both  its  rarity  as  a 
study  and  the  power  of  its  appeal  to  the  sense  of  the 
beautiful,  is  his  knowledge  of  gems. 

There  are  few  jewel  merchants  who  can  boast  of  so 
perfect  a  judgment  of  precious  stones  as  that  which  he 
possesses.  He  is  a  really  remarkable  connoisseur,  can 
tell  after  one  long  gaze  within  the  changeful  light  of  a 
gem  its  accurate  value,  and  is  said  to  be  rarely  at  fault 
in  his  verdict. 

It  is  quite  impossible  to  mention  before  him  a  gem  of 
which  he  has  not  heard,  jargoons,  amazzonites,  argirites, 
variolites,  asterias,  chalcedony  and  beryls  being  as  famil- 
iar to  him  as  emeralds,  sapphires,  diamonds,  and  rubies 
are  to  the  ordinary  layman,  and  when  he  selects  a  jewel 
one  can  be  certain  that  it  is  as  perfect  as  a  jewel  can  be. 

And  what,  after  all,  is  more  fascinating  than  a  precious 
stone  ?  What  can  be  compared  with  the  soft  beauty  of 
a  flawless  emerald — save  the  mark! — the  all-conquering 
silver  fires  of  a  truly  white  diamond,  the  endless  depth 
of  a  clear,  purplish-blue  sapphire,  with  its  exquisite 
blending  of  two  regally  wedded  colors,  so  translucent, 
so  serenely  pure,  and  which  looks  as  if  it  must  be  velvety 
to  the  touch  ?  What  glory  can  equal  that  which  slum- 
bers in  the  torchlike  luminance  of  a  ruby,  what  delicious 
delicacy  is  that  of  the  pearl  ? 

The  beautiful,  eloquent  silence  of  gems  takes  those 
who  understand  it  straight  into  fairy-land,  and  makes 
them  dream  beautiful  dreams,  because  gems  have  no 
connection  with  the  loathsome  things  of  life,  and  being 
deathless  are  a  joy  forever.  Women  are  as  a  rule  sup- 
posed to  love  jewels — they  think  they  love  them — but 
their  greed  for  them  is  mostly  prompted  by  vanity, 
since  they  think  that  to  wear  such  gorgeous  ornaments 
enhances  their  appearance,  and  arouses  jealousy  in  the 

253 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

hearts  of  other  women — not  an  aim  to  be  despised  by 
them — but  that  is  not  real  love.  The  true  love  of  gems 
is  based  on  a  comprehension  of  the  potent  charm  wield- 
ed by  the  crystallized  magnificence  of  objects  so  greatly 
impregnated  with  a  mystery,  which  gives  full  scope  to 
the  flow  of  imagination  and  of  phantasy. 

No  artistic  temperament  is  complete  without  this 
particular  love.  Some  people  may  think  this  statement 
exaggerated.  How  few  understand  the  inexpressible 
attraction  of  those  beautiful  things  coming  from  far 
away,  from  the  heart  of  mountains  or  the  translucent 
depths  of  the  ocean,  and  which  have  journeyed,  many 
of  them,  since  the  beginning  of  the  world,  from  country 
to  country,  from  land  to  land,  accompanied  by  an  ever- 
increasing  legendary  value,  by  the  renown  of  a  magical 
loveliness  which  nothing  can  surpass,  that  has  watched 
the  march  of  centuries  with  the  same  unimpaired  clear 
serenity,  the  same  imperturbable  and  imperishable 
lustre! 

Is  it  strange  that  we  poor  dreamers  of  dreams,  whose 
lives  are  so  short  and  so  arduous — whatever  may  be  our 
status — should  find  solace  and  comfort  in  gazing  at  the 
unchangeable  splendor  of  an  object  that  we  fancy  has 
endured  since  the  rising  of  that  terrific  tempest  which 
roared  through  the  black  night  when  the  world  was 
born,  and  has  been  exposed  to  the  amazing  vicissitudes 
of  millions  of  years  without  losing  a  tithe  of  its  marvel- 
lous vivaciousness,  its  delicious  power  to  grasp  the  sun- 
rays  and  treasure  them  within  their  innermost  being, 
to  smile  back  even  at  the  faint  luminance  of  the  moon  ? 

Is  it  so  incomprehensible  that  we,  who  make  of  them 
the  trusted  messengers  of  love  and  of  gratitude,  the 
heralds  of  passion,  the  interpreters  of  our  innermost 
feelings,  should  feel  that  they  are  not  soulless  or  frigid, 
but  that, 'like  living  creatures,  they  have  the  power  of 

254 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

realizing  our  tenderness  for  them  and  of  reciprocating  it 
after  their  own  fashion — by  bringing  us  luck,  perchance, 
or  merely  even  by  dispelling  with  their  exquisite  radi- 
ance the  gloom  and  discouragement  which  so  often,  alas ! 
enwrap  our  poor  weak  souls  when  we  experience  more 
than  usual  the  bitterness  of  life? 

An  occultistic  theory!  Oh!  not  at  all;  a  very  well 
proven  fact,  on  the  contrary!  How  could  it  be  possible 
that  gems  which  can  give  a  thousand  things  —  light, 
color,  brilliance,  delight,  not  to  mention  envy,  jealousy, 
and  all  their  derivatives — could  receive  a  deep,  genuine 
love  and  remain  absolutely  unaffected  thereby?  Do 
they  not  really  retain  amid  all  their  prismatic  fires  the 
fire  of  such  a  love  ?  But,  bah !  Here  I  am  allowing  myself 
to  be  carried  away  by  my  own  pet  theories  concerning 
the  eternal  law  of  exchange — that  law  which  governs 
the  universe,  and  which  so  few  interpret  aright,  and  also 
by  my  love  for  those  beautiful  pure  things  brought  from 
the  heart  of  the  mountains  or  the  depths  of  the  oceans, 
and  which  alone  here  below  are  exempt  from  undergo- 
ing that  hideous  transformation  which  death  brings  to 
all  others. 

I  am  far  from  my  starting-point,  and  yet,  mayhap, 
not  so  very  much  so,  since  the  above  lines  can  very  well 
serve  as  an  explanation  of  Emperor  William's  fondness 
for,  and  marvellous  knowledge  of,  gems. 

As  is  his  invariable  custom,  he  has  made  a  point  to 
find  out  all  he  could  about  the  nature,  the  sources,  the 
mining,  the  cutting,  the  testing,  and  the  value  of  pre- 
cious stones.  Much  study  and  attention  is  required  to 
attain  a  thorough  comprehension  of  their  properties 
and  appearance,  but  to  the  really  cultured  it  is  one  of 
singular  interest,  and  one  of  the  best  known  experts  in 
Europe  declared,  not  long  ago,  that  William  II.  is  pos- 
sessed of  a  quite  unusual,  practical,  and  scientific  under- 

255 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

standing  in  this  matter,  which  in  Germany  is  known 
under  the  special  appellation  of  ' '  Edelsteinkunde "  (the 
science  of  gems),  and  includes  crystallography,  physics, 
chemistry,  and  geology. 

A  remarkably  clever  draughtsman,  the  Emperor  has 
himself  designed  a  great  many  of  the  Empress's  jewels — 
a  diadem,  for  instance,  of  a  singular  elegance  of  form,  the 
delicate  diamond  trellis-work  of  which  is  interspersed 
with  magnificent  pear-shaped  pearls  and  surmounted 
by  huge  brilliants  of  the  very  finest  water. 

Some  time  ago  Her  Majesty  appeared  at  the  "Opern 
Subscriptions  Bdlle"  wearing  such  splendid  jewels  that 
two  celebrated  experts  who  were  present  declared  that 
their  long  experience  had  never  shown  them  anything 
comparable.  About  her  throat  the  Imperial  lady  had 
a  necklace  of  enormous  and  absolutely  priceless  emeralds 
of  an  exquisite  clear  dark  green — those  rarely  seen  emer- 
alds which  look  alive  and  full  of  a  sort  of  marvellously 
eager  and  yet  calm  and  soothing  animation.  Other 
emeralds  sent  forth  their  mysterious  green  lustre  from 
the  front  of  her  corsage,  which  was  literally  covered 
with  chains,  plaques,  and  loops  of  diamonds  flashing 
white,  pink,  yellow,  green,  and  purple  lightning  as  she 
moved.  Big,  smooth,  milky-white  pearls  of  enormous 
size,  and  still  more  enormous  value,  gleamed  gently  as 
they  drooped  over  her  white  bosom,  in  the  midst  of  the 
blinding  flames  of -the  diamonds.  Quivering  sprays  of 
brilliants  were  scattered  over  her  primrose-hued  train, 
emitting  sparks  of  frosty  light,  while  the  centre  of  all 
this  splendor  was  formed  by  the  really  gigantic  diamond 
which  once  glittered  upon  Napoleon  I.'s.  hat,  and  was 
found  lying  near  his  abandoned  travelling-carriage  on 
the  battle-field  after  his  defeat  at  Waterloo.  Indeed, 
diamonds  and  emeralds  shone  all  over  her,  from  head 
to  foot,  with  a  cool  glitter  like  that  of  moon-rays  upon 

256 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

ice  and  dew-drops  upon  foliage,  while  her  pearls — the 
largest  and  purest  pearls  that  ever  Indian  diver  plunged 
for  into  the  blue  depths  of  the  tropic  seas — attracted 
the  gaze  and  envy  of  all  the  women  present.  Empress 
Augusta- Victoria's  pearls  are  worth  millions,  for  they 
are  so  large,  so  perfect  in  color  and  shape,  so  lavish 
in  their  profusion  that  few  Regalias  contain  such 
treasures. 

The  Emperor  is  very  lavish  in  his  gifts,  and  takes  a 
great  deal  of  pleasure  in  preparing  surprises  of  a  very 
delectable  nature  for  his  wife  and  children,  continually 
plotting,  planning,  designing,  and  ordering,  with  an  air 
of  delightful  secrecy,  all  sorts  of  beautiful  and  appro- 
priate things  to  afford  them  pleasure.  Birthdays,  as 
well  as  all  anniversaries,  are  remembered  with  punc- 
tilious "m£moire  du  coeur"  by  him. 

At  Easter  he  romps  with  his  children  in  the  Imperial 
park,  searching  for  the  daintily  decorated  and  painted 
eggs  which  the  Empress  has  herself  concealed  in  the 
moss  and  ivy  garlands  of  the  undergrowth,  and  Christ- 
mas is  celebrated  at  the  Court  of  Berlin  with  extraordi- 
nary magnificence,  although  quite  "en  famille"  for  the 
Emperor  makes  a  point  of  devoting  himself  entirely,  on 
that  occasion,  to  his  wife  and  children. 

It  takes  a  man  who,  like  William  II.,  has  a  thorough- 
ly clean  bill  of  moral  health,  to  throw  himself  body  and 
soul,  as  he  does,  into  the  spirit  of  these  Christmas  prep- 
arations. He  is  here,  there,  and  everywhere,  at  one 
and  the  same  time,  working  with  dashing  rapidity,  ac- 
complishing unheard  of  feats  of  agility,  directing  ev- 
erything, however,  without  any  fuss  or  undue  excite- 
ment. The  almost  boyish  delight  which  he  takes  in  these 
occupations  is  charming  to  witness,  and  in  expectation 
of  the  great  moment  when  presents  will  be  exchanged, 
and  the  splendid  trees  lighted  up,  his  mental  appetite 

25? 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

for  a  full  meed  of  joy  seems,  like  that  of  the  children,  to 
grow  sharper  and  sharper. 

Berlin  is  always  very  brilliant  at  Christmas-time;  the 
shops  teem  with  gorgeous  trifles,  those  occupied  by 
"Delicatessen"  displaying  a  Gargantuan  profusion  of 
good  things  to  eat,  decorated  with  sprigs  of  holly  and 
garlands  of  small  pine-branches.  In  the  game-dealers' 
windows  squadrons  of  quail  and  gayly  plumed  pheas- 
ants, mountains  of  partridges  and  quantities  of  wild 
boar  and  venison  haunches  attract  the  gaping  attention 
of  the  multitudes,  who  have  tramped  all  day  through  the 
snow-cushioned  streets  to  purchase  such  holiday  fare  as 
the  condition  of  their  finances  will  allow.  Everybody 
carries  strings  of  parcels,  while  laughing  children,  whose 
ardor  is  wrought  to  fever-heat  by  the  splendor  of  the 
spectacle,  accompany  their  parents,  with  cheeks  flushed 
to  a  rosy  red  and  eyes  sparkling  like  stars. 

Gliding  rapidly  and  unostentatiously  in  and  out  of 
the  throng,  a  small  dark  brougham  conveys  the  Empress 
to  the  establishments  she  patronizes,  for  she,  too,  makes 
a  point  of  doing  some  present-buying  personally  and 
quite  simply,  just  as  if  at  a  sign  from  her  little  finger  all 
the  merchants  in  her  capital  would  not  empty  their 
choicest  goods  into  the  palace  for  her  private  selection. 

Life  has,  for  rich  and  poor  alike,  some  deliciously  dec- 
orated moments,  Christmas  is  certainly  the  best  of 
them  all,  and  for  Emperor  William  it  is  indeed  a  red- 
letter  day.  He  loves  to  give  pleasure  to  everybody, 
from  the  Empress  down  to  the  humblest  kitchen-maid 
in  his  palace  or  carriage-washer  in  his  vast  stables — 
whom  he  would  not  be  able  to  recognize  if  he  met  them 
elsewhere,  and  whose  names  he  could  not  remember  if 
asked  to  mention  them.  The  latter,  as  all  the  Imperial 
servants,  receive  from  him  at  Christmas  a  "special" 
souvenir.  I  advisedly  say  "  special"  for  each  present 

258 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

is  something  quite  personal,  and  has  been  the  subject 
of  much  thought  and  of  many  anxious  consultations 
between  the  Imperial  couple. 

During  the  weeks  preceding  the  great  day,  the  book 
wherein  Her  Majesty  has  carefully  and  neatly  inscribed 
all  the  gifts  given  on  preceding  occasions,  is  meticulously 
perused,  so  that  there  can  be  no  danger  of  repetition  in 
the  selection  of  the  thousand  and  one  articles  to  be  pur- 
chased. Moreover,  by  means  best  known  to  themselves, 
and  which  must  be  singularly  ingenious  and  delicately 
carried  out,  the  individual  tastes  of  all  the  palace  ser- 
vants are  ascertained  beforehand  by  the  Emperor  and 
Empress,  as  well  as  their  particular  little  desires,  and 
the  latter  are,  therefore,  satisfied  with  an  exactitude 
smacking  almost  of  the  supernatural.  If  eyes  were 
made  for  seeing  and  admiring,  if  hearts  were  made  to 
understand,  then  must  one  admire  and  confess  one's  ad- 
miration of  such  exquisite  forethought  and  kindness. 

The  early  morning  of  December  24th  finds  everybody 
wide  awake  at  the  " Neues  Palais" — where  Christmas 
is  usually  spent — everybody  fresh  and  wide  awake  and 
joyous,  and  perfectly  in  the  scheme  of  the  great  festival. 
The  transports  of  delight  to  which  the  children  give  vent 
as  they  flutter  hither  and  thither,  avoiding  with  comical 
leaps  and  bounds  the  vicinity  of  Kaiserin's  great  ante- 
chamber and  the  "  Muschelsaal, "  where  preparations 
are  still  going  on  which  are  to  remain  a  dead  secret  till 
the  evening;  the  funny  little  way  in  which  " Prinzess- 
chen"  cocks  her  pretty  head  a  bit  on  one  side  to  gaze 
with  critical  enjoyment  at  the  batch  of  presents  she  her- 
self has  prepared  for  her  parents  and  brothers ;  the  gam- 
bols and  frisky  scurryings  of  the  younger  boys  along  the 
interminable  corridors,  are  the  most  charming  things 
of  their  kind  one  can  imagine,  but  the  most  marvellous 
and  interesting  of  all  is  the  Emperor's  behavior. 

259 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

Surely,  on  Christmas  Day,  he  is  at  his  very  "bestest" 
best!  To  see  him  then  one  would  think  that  the  mill- 
stone of  care  has  been  lifted  once  and  for  all  from  his 
shoulders.  He  talks  and  jokes  and  laughs  from  the 
moment  he  appears  upon  the  scene,  as  if  he  himself 
had  become  once  more  a  mere  youngster,  and  displays 
the  qualities  of  the  most  jovial  tempered  man  out 
of  paradise,  for  he  is  not  only  full  of  fun  himself, 
but  the  cause  of  continual  fun  and  delight  in  others. 
It  would  be  impossible  while  watching  him  to  realize 
that  he  has  already  passed,  if  but  by  a  little,  what  the 
poet  calls  "the  flower  of  a  sound  man's  youth,  the 
golden,  gladsome,  romantic  age  of  forty!" 

He  inhales  with  the  appreciation  of  a  thorough  con- 
noisseur the  pungently  delicious  and  exquisitely  resin- 
ous smell  of  the  fir-branches,  so  strong  upon  the  warm 
air  of  the  grand  halls  and  salons  as  to  seem  almost 
ponderable,  and  which  strangely  intensifies  the  sweet- 
ness of  the  whole  performance;  he  receives  with  merry 
effusion  the  Captain  of  the  First  Regiment  of  Guards, 
who  presents  himself  punctually  at  eleven  o'clock  at 
the  palace,  bearing  the  Regiment's  Christmas  greetings 
and  offering — a  stupendous  cake  magnificently  adorned 
and  displaying  on  its  rich  bosom,  amid  brightly  colored 
sugar  arabesques,  a  black  eagle  surmounting  a  wide 
"banderole"  with  the  words  " Suum-Cuique"  inscribed 
upon  it.  This  is  a  custom  handed  down  from  the  past, 
and  which  pleases  the  Emperor  immensely,  for  the  quaint 
little  ceremony  is  as  scrupulously  carried  out  as  it  was 
in  the  far-away  days  when  the  Guards  were  granted  the 
privilege  of  providing  their  Sovereign-Chief  with  this 
Yule  delicacy. 

At  twelve  o'clock  precisely  the  Imperial  family  as- 
semble in  the  breakfast-room  for  an  informal  "dejeuner 
a  la  fourchette,"  and  with  a  view  of  making  his  children 

260 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

laugh,  the  Emperor,  who  usually  cares  very  little  what 
he  eats  or  drinks,  pretends  to  be  ravenously  hungry, 
and  examines  the  various  dishes  with  the  devoutness  of 
an  impassioned  "gourmet." 

"Omelette,  beefsteak,  potatoes,  '  en  robe de chambre,' ' 
or  "  grilled  chicken,  truffled  pat£" — as  the  case  may  be, 
he  enumerates,  shaking  his  head  solemnly  in  admiration 
of  the  good  fare  set  before  him.  "What  a  deliciously 
sustaining  meal,"  he  continues,  "and  how  appropriate 
to  this  festive  occasion!  Christmas  confers  upon  its 
devotees  an  unbounded  appetite,  and  if  they  did  not 
get  the  proper  variety  and  quantity  of  food  on  this 
day  they  would  not  be  equal  to  the  burden  of  joy  that 
is  to  follow" — and  at  the  sound  of  his  ringing  laugh  the 
Empress  beams  with  delight,  the  boys  expand,  and 
" Prinzesschen"  leaves  her  place  to  climb  on  his  lap 
and  pull  his  mustaches,  all  ceremony,  etiquette,  and 
other  similar  "  trouble  -  fetes "  being  banished  for  the 
nonce. 

"  Papachen"  chatfs  and  pokes  fun  at  his  six  stalwart 
sons,  but  " Priwesschen"  gets  naught  but  caresses,  his 
voice  softens  every  time  he  speaks  to  her,  and  he  selects 
with  humorously  anxious  care  the  daintiest  morsels  and 
the  truffled  portions  of  every  dish  for  the  little  lady's 
delectation,  who  with  a  coquettish  little  mien  opens  her 
rosy  mouth  dutifully  to  receive  them. 

The  yellowest  melancholy  would  not  be  proof  against 
such  a  scene  of  unrestrained  happiness  and  simple  ten- 
derness. But  soon  parents  and  children  tear  themselves 
from  the  pleasures  of  the  table  and  are  up  and  doing 
again,  "  Prinze  sschen"  first,  however,  hovering  near 
her  beloved  "  Papachen,"  busy  with  a  game  of  make- 
believe — pretending  that  she  is  going  to  make  a  break  for 
the  "  strengverboten  "  rooms,  now  gingerly,  with  slow,  cal- 
culating up-liftings  and  down-puttings  of  her  little  feet, 

261 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

stealing  a  silent  march  towards  the  proscribed  region, 
now  rapidly  veering  and  noiselessly  bounding  forward, 
now  halting,  recoiling,  masking  herself  behind  some  cur- 
tain or  heavy  piece  of  furniture,  and  peering  warily  over 
it,  to  be  finally  caught  in  all  her  grace  and  mischievous- 
ness  within  the  circle  of  his  arms  and  smothered  with 
kisses. 

Immediately  after  an  early  dinner,  which  is  but  a 
repetition  of  that  joyous  luncheon,  the  whole  family 
make  their  way  rapidly  to  the  Empress's  great  ante- 
chamber, where  the  servants  are  already  expectantly 
gathered,  and  everybody  is  at  once  ushered  amid  a  reg- 
ular burst  of  enthusiasm  into  the  glittering  presence  of 
His  Majesty  the  Christmas-tree. 

Ah!  what  a  tree  it  is!  A  giant  among  trees,  mag- 
nificently vivid  with  its  intensely  green  branches,  its 
myriad  pink,  white,  blue -and -yellow  candles  tipped 
with  gleaming  fire,  which  is  dazzlingly  reflected  in  the 
stars  and  crescents  of  gold  and  silver,  the  crystal  icicles, 
mother-o' -pearl  snowballs,  and  the  hundreds  of  other 
multicolored  trifles  with  which  it  is  loaded. 

This  is  the  tree  especially  prepared  for  the  palace 
servants  and  employes,  and  the  Emperor  and  Em- 
press, aided  by  their  children,  distribute  every  gift  in 
person,  accompanying  each  one  with  a  few  kind  words 
and  wishes,  the  Kaiser  being  in  the  habit  of  emphasizing, 
by  a  little  tap  on  the  shoulder  and  a  singularly  bright 
and  cheery  smile,  those  presents  which  he  hands  to  old 
and  especially  valued  servitors. 

Patiently  the  children,  thinking  their  white  thoughts, 
dreaming  their  blissful  dreams  of  a  now  very  near  future 
indeed,  await  their  turn,  while  their  mother's  face,  as 
she  glides  from  one  to  the  other  recipient  of  her  bounty, 
with  her  hands  full  of  useful  and  pretty  things,  is  so 
tender  and  so  happy  that  all  those  who  watch  her  feel 

262 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

that  they  are  in  the  presence  of  that  most  blessed  and 
rare  of  all  living  beings,  an  absolutely  good  and  true 
woman. 

Emperor  William's  home  is  a  garden  of  beautiful  ideas 
at  Christmas,  that  is  very  certain. 

When  every  servant  has  been  spoken  to  individually, 
when  the  grateful  and  reverential  "kandkusse"  are  over, 
then,  and  then  only,  do  parents  and  children  betake 
themselves  to  the  mysterious  ' '  Muschelsaal, "  towards 
which  for  many  days  past  their  thoughts  have  con- 
verged, and  where  the  latter  are  at  last  allowed  to  go 
and  gaze  at  that  ninth  wonder  of  the  world — fir-trees 
that  bear  golden  roses  and  silver  lilies. 

The  "Muschelsaal"  is  bordered  on  each  side,  for  the 
occasion,  by  verdure  interspersed  with  holly  and  mistle- 
toe, forming  two  graceful  hedges  of  deep,  almost  solemn 
color,  wherein  dark  green  merges  into  metallic  green, 
and  metallic  green  dissolves  into  waxen  whiteness  and 
fiery  carmine — that  intense  red  and  frosty  pallor  which 
much  artificial  light  coaxes  from  the  freshly  culled  ber- 
ries of  the  plants  consecrated  by  time -honored  usage 
to  Father  Christmas. 

At  the  lower  end  of  the  great  room  is  the  "Creche," 
a  grotto  roofed  and  walled  with  boughs,  arranged  to 
represent  the  stable  of  Bethlehem,  and  which  contains 
lifelike  waxen  figures  of  the  Holy  Virgin  and  Child,  of 
St.  Joseph,  of  the  Shepherd  Kings,  and  of  the  animals 
which  had  the  privilege  of  sharing  their  lowly  dwelling 
with  the  infant  Lord. 

This  "Creche"  is  always  in  exquisite  taste,  not  over- 
loaded with  ornaments,  but  made  to  look  like  a  dim, 
brown  little  stable — the  same  where  two  thousand  years 
ago  the  Wise  Men  worshipped.  Save  for  the  tinted  light 
that  filters  through  the  green  boughs  and  the  magnificence 
of  the  superb  apartment  where  it  is  built,  it  is  a  perfect 

263 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

evocation  of  the  past,  with  its  hidden  and  unutterable 
simplicity  and  sweetness.  The  Blessed  Mother's  half- 
kneeling  figure,  her  delicate  profile,  her  long,  unbound 
hair,  her  very  garments  are  rendered  with  amazing  ar- 
tistic reality;  the  "Magi,"  prostrated  devoutly  in  their 
awe  and  wonder  before  the  tiny  Babe  cradled  in  His 
Mother's  arms,  fill  that  dim  little  stable  with  a  glory 
eyes  are  not  needed  to  see,  with  a  music  ears  are  not 
needed  to  hear,  and  from  which  seems  to  be  diffused  all 
peace,  all  grace,  all  benediction. 

I  need  not  add  that  it  is  to  the  Emperor  that  is  due 
the  amazing  completeness  of  this  ideal  little  nook,  which 
he  causes  to  be  prepared  each  year  under  his  immediate 
direction,  and  to  be  carried  out  according  to  his  own 
ideas — beautiful  and  holy  ones  in  every  detail — down  to 
the  humble  and  lowly  attitudes  of  those  kingly  shep- 
herds offering  their  gorgeous  gifts  with  a  diffidence 
which  clearly  says: 

"  Domine,  non  sum  dignus  /" 

Outside  this  magic  cave  the  gold  and  silver  flowering 
Imperial  trees  raise  their  marvellous  branches,  gloriously 
illuminating  the  presents  charmingly  disposed  on  square, 
white-draped  tables. 

The  children  are  now  clearly  beside  themselves  with 
joy,  their  hair  is  ruffled,  the  wholesome  pink  of  their 
comely  faces  shows  a  deeper  flush,  their  lips  are  parted, 
their  chests  heave,  while  curious,  expectant,  eager,  they 
open  parcel  after  parcel,  make  inextricable  knots  of  the 
ribbons  carefully  and  gracefully  looped  by  their  mother's 
supple,  clever  fingers,  and  when  a  new  surprise  is  re- 
vealed, cry  out  in  a  dozen  different  tones:  "Oh!  Papa- 
chen!  Oh!  Mamachen!"  the  immensity  of  their  varied 
emotions  precluding  the  possibility  of  lengthier  speech. 

264 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

In  the  mean  while  His  Majesty  William  II.  is  just  as 
keenly  interested  in  his  own  presents  as  the  youngest 
of  his  sons  —  betrays  just  as  many  many -colored  as- 
tonishments and  delights.  His  face  is  positively  ra- 
diant, he  bends  down  and  peers  intently  into  boxes  and 
packages,  from  whence  he  raises  half  -  laughing,  half- 
moist  eyes  when  something  particularly  to  his  taste  has 
been  discovered. 

Christmas  packages  are  so  mysterious — aren't  they? 
Filled  with  so  many  enchanting  things,  and  such  deep 
pleasures  grow  out  of  them !  That's  why  they  cause  both 
pensiveness  and  laughter!  Now  his  wife  and  children 
are  in  his  arms — as  many  of  the  children  as  he  can  pos- 
sibly hold  at  the  same  time  without  crowding  out  his 
"  Dornroschen  " — now  they  have  all  fluttered  away  again 
in  quest  of  some  new  reason  for  fluttering  back  once 
more  with  another  chorus  of  brimming  gratitude. 

The  Empress  is  sure  to  find  among  her  new  treasures 
some  beautiful  jewel  designed  by  her  Lord,  for  the  Em- 
peror likes  to  give  things  that  endure  and  are  "a  joy 
forever,"  and  her  blushing  thanks  are  so  girlish  that 
they  must  surely  carry  him  back  to  the  days  of  their 
romantic  courtship. 

And  now  it  is  late — very  late — fly  away  to  your  little 
bed,  happy  "  Prinzesschen."  "Gute  Nacht"  Princes 
Joachim,  Oscar,  August,  Adalbert,  Eitel:  God  speed 
you!  Prince  Wilhelm,  Crown  Prince  of  Prussia,  the 
Christmas  festivities  are  over,  and  to-morrow  life  begins 
again  with  its  burden  of  joys  and  of  labors.  Hurry! 
hurry!  know  you  not  that  to-morrow  before  daybreak 
your  father  will  as  usual  give  you  the  example  of  what 
a  Prince  should  do,  by  being  back  at  his  task  again — 
hard  at  work. 


265 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

Hard  at  work,  yes,  for  the  good  of  his  Realm  and  of 
the  fifty  millions  of  people  who  so  rightly  trust  him! 
Of  course  it  is  next  to  impossible  to  praise  an  Emperor 
or  a  King  nowadays  without  laying  one's  self  bare  to  the 
charge  of  toadyism  and  base  flattery.  This  is  a  poor 
sign  of  our  age,  for  why  justice  should  not  be  done  to  a 
man  simply  because  he  happens  to  occupy  a  Throne, 
passes  my  understanding.  So  I  do  not  hesitate  to  run 
the  risk  common  to  all  those  who  dare  to  tell  the  truth 
about  Crowned  Heads,  even  when  this  truth  chances  to 
be  of  a  pleasant  kind,  and  will  in  consequence  be  once 
more  torn  to  pieces  by  critics  of  all  denominations. 
"Malesh!"  as  the  Arab  has  it! 

It  would  be  difficult  to  enumerate  even  in  the  briefest 
fashion  all  that  he  has  done  for  his  country  during  his 
relatively  short  reign.  "A  Monarchical  form  of  govern- 
ment is  almost  as  natural  to  men  as  it  is  to  bees  and  ants," 
saith  that  cheerful  philosopher,  Schopenhauer,  and  Ger- 
many is  a  very  good  example  of  this  axiom,  and  of  the 
success  which  a  Monarchy  can  achieve  even  in  our 
time,  when  "the  man  at  the  wheel"  knows  his  business, 
and  attends  to  it. 

See,  for  instance,  how  Emperor  William  has  succeeded, 
by  dint  of  a  clever  blending  of  cordiality,  firmness,  and 
friendliness,  in  completely  dispelling  the  feelings  of 
openly  avowed  aversion  entertained  for  him  and  for 
Germany  at  the  time  of  his  accession,  by  several  Foreign 
Powers,  and  how  quickly  he  has  gained  the  most  promi- 
nent place  in  the  political  firmament  of  Europe. 

When  he  ascended  the  Throne,  Russia  was  one  of  the 
Great  Powers  most  distinctly  antagonistic  to  him;  in- 
deed, when  William  I.  was  on  his  death-bed,  almost  his 
last  injunction  to  his  grandson  was  to  be  on  his  guard 
with  Russia,  and'  to  try  and  bear  with  that  nation's 
unfriendliness  and  prejudice.  Alexander  III.,  who  was 

266 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

then  on  the  Throne  of  the  Great  White  Empire,  abhorred 
everything  German,  and  entertained  the  most  vehement 
and  unreasoning  prejudice  against  the  "young  Hohen- 
zollern"  as  he  called  him,  who  was  soon  to  become  a 
brother  Sovereign.  This  prejudice  was  so  pronounced 
that  it  had  driven  the  Czar  into  the  arms  of  France,  and 
had  led  him  to  break  off  the  alliance  hitherto  subsisting 
between  Austria,  Germany  and  Russia  —  nor  was  this 
all,  for  he  managed  to  communicate  his  extreme  dis- 
like and  hostility  for  William  to  the  Czarina,  the  Czare- 
witz,  and,  in  one  word,  to  most  of  the  other  members  of 
the  House  of  Romanoff. 

William  was  very  well  aware  of  all  this,  and  yet, 
quite  undeterred  thereby,  four  weeks  or  so  after  his 
assumption  of  Sovereign  power,  he  started  to  pay  a 
state-visit  to  the  Czar,  disregarded  the  chilling  nature 
of  his  reception  at  St.  Petersburg,  treating  black  looks 
and  even  frank  antagonism  as  absolutely  non-existent, 
and  continued  to  show  himself  superior  to  petty  sen- 
timents of  personal  distaste  where  great  interests  were 
concerned,  with  the  result  that  to-day  he  has  accom- 
plished his  end,  and  is  ''persona  gratissima"  not  only 
at  the  Muscovite  Court,  but  throughout  Russia,  where 
the  animosity  towards  Germany,  so  rampant  sixteen 
years  ago,  has  given  way  to  perfect  good- will.  This 
achievement  is  of  world- wide  importance,  for  the  elimi- 
nation of  the  dread  possibilities  of  a  war  between  Ger- 
many and  Russia  is  a  weighty  contribution  to  the  fur- 
therance of  general  peace. 

In  the  days  of  which  I  have  just  spoken — that  is,  at  the 
end  of  the  eighties — William  was  looked  upon  as  a  wild- 
ly reckless  young  swashbuckler,  eager  to  set  fire  to  the 
four  corners  of  Europe,  and  to  plunge  it  into  carnage 
and  blood  in  order  to  adorn  his  brow  with  military  lau- 
rels. To-day  Europe  has  been  forced  to  alter  her  opin- 

18  267 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

ion  considerably  in  this  respect,  and  to  shamefacedly 
pocket  her  apprehensions,  for,  so  far,  Emperor  William 
has  been  a  Prince  of  Peace  and  of  Moderation,  the  steel 
gauntlet  has  been  gloved  with  softest  velvet,  and  al- 
though he  has  not  thought  it  necessary  to  assert  his 
pacific  intentions  by  Peace  Conferences  and  garlands  of 
tinsel  olive-branches,  yet  it  is  due  to  the  perfection  of 
his  army  as  a  fighting-machine,  to  his  sagacity,  his  for- 
bearance, and  his  sobriety  of  judgment,  that  a  general 
"melee"  has  not  already  broken  out  in  Europe  at 
different  critical  junctures. 

With  regard  to  France,  as  I  have  already  stated,  Ger- 
many's Emperor  has  manifested  an  amount  of  tact  and 
"savoir-faire"  quite  above  praise,  for  any  one  endowed 
with  less  comprehension  and  patience  would  have  been 
heartily  disgusted  and  discouraged  by  the  preposterous 
attitude  of  the  French  in  connection  with  Alsace-Lor- 
raine, and  greatly  irritated  by  the  fashion  in  which 
they  expressed  their  singularly  naive  expectations. 

"The  German  Caligula,"  as  the  Gallic  press  amiably 
designates  the  Emperor  when  he  has  done  something 
to  displease  "messieurs  les  journalistes  et  messieurs  les 
hommes  politiques" — a  poor  combination,  at  best,  in 
France — is  expected,  if  you  please,  to  "hand  back  Alsace 
and  Lorraine  to  their  lawful  owners,  this  being  the  only 
guarantee  of  reconciliation  which  the  French  nation  can 
expect — the  only  chance  of  forgiveness  the  Emperor  can 
look  forward  to  !"  (Textual.) 

Can  anything  be  more  ridiculous  and  pointless  ? 

But  far  from  taking  offence  at,  or  even  notice  of,  the 
"  furia  Francese"  Emperor  William  has  sent  large  sums 
of  money  whenever  any  appeal  was  made  in  France  for 
the  relief  of  French  suffering,  especially  in  cases  of  sud- 
den disaster;  has  behaved  with  the  utmost  magnanim- 
ity to  French  officers  captured  while  committing  acts  of 

268 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

espionage  in  German  territory,  restoring  them  to  liberty 
instead  of  subjecting  them  to  long  years  of  imprison- 
ment (vide  Jules  Simon's  narrative),  and  has,  generally 
speaking,  heaped  coals  of  fire  on  the  heads  of  his  Gallic 
detractors. 

A  French  Deputy  published  some  time  ago  a  very 
magniloquent  diatribe  in  a  great  Parisian  daily,  about 
the  barbarism  displayed  by  the  Emperor  in  "retaining 
against  all  justice  and  fairness  a  vital  portion  of  France,  bru- 
tally torn  from  her  side  in  1871,  and  still  bleeding  and  pal- 
pitating with  pain  and  with  despair."  This  is  in  accord- 
ance with  neither  fact  nor  history.  Alsace  and  Lorraine 
no  longer  "bleed  and  palpitate  with  pain  and  despair," 
while  as  to  those  Provinces  being  a  "vital  portion  of 
France,"  little  research  is  required  to  establish  a  very 
different  opinion.  Ever  since  the  tenth  century  the 
territories  in  question  were  occupied  by  a  purely 
Teutonic  stock,  and  had  been  included  in  the  old  Ger- 
man Empire.  It  was  only  in  1648  that  a  portion  of 
Alsace  was  ceded  to  France,  and  then  only  because 
French  troops  had  so  terribly  devastated  and  impover- 
ished them  that  the  then  Emperor  was  unable  to  keep 
them  as  part  and  parcel  of  the  German  dominions. 

The  slaughter  of  the  inhabitants  had  been  of  the  most 
wholesale  description,  so  that  the  wretched  survivors 
hated  the  very  sight  of  a  French  uniform;  indeed,  the 
land  had  for  many  years  to  lie  fallow,  since  there  was 
not  any  longer  a  sufficient  number  of  peasants  left  to 
cultivate  the  fields.  Later  on,  Louis  XIV.'s  armies  laid 
hold  of  the  remaining  porti6n  of  Alsace,  but  it  was  only 
after  the  Revolution  of  1789  that  all  of  what  is  now 
called  "Alsace-Lorraine"  was  finally  acquired  by 
France. 

To  do  them  justice,  the  Alsatians  and  Lorrainers  never 
ceased  their  bitter  denunciations  of  the  French,  and  their 

269 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

openly  avowed  declarations  of  hatred  against  these  Gal- 
lic oppressors,  during  the  eighty-two  years  which  pre- 
ceded their  recapture  by  the  Germans.  But  no  sooner 
had  this  occurred  than  they,  with  touching  unanim- 
ity and  "ensemble,"  promptly  transferred  this  hatred 
to  their  more  recent  conquerors,  and  commenced  to 
profess  the  most  ardent  devotion  to  France,  since  the 
r61e  of  a  victim,  when  it  arouses  wide-spread  sympathy, 
is  always  attractive — occasionally  even  of  material  ad- 
vantage—  and  the  Alsatians  and  Lorrainers  are  re- 
nowned for  the  keenness  of  their  appreciation  of  the 
main  chance. 

Emperor  William,  however,  has  now  won  them  from 
their  beloved  pose  by  his  tactful  management.  He  flat- 
tered them  by  appearing  among  them  as  often  as  possi- 
ble; he  purchased  the  estate  of  Urville,  in  Lorraine,  and 
had  its  grand  old  chateau  magnificently  repaired  for 
use  as  an  Imperial  residence,  and  in  one  way  and  an- 
other he  has  persuaded  them  to  become  as  thoroughly 
German  in  politics  as  they  are  in  race,  character,  and 
origin.  Witness  the  significant  fact  that,  whereas  the 
troops  raised  in  these  two  provinces  have  been  hither- 
to stationed  in  other  parts  of  the  Empire,  it  has  re- 
cently been  decreed  that  all  recruits  voluntarily  present- 
ing themselves  for  military  service  shall  be  allowed  to 
serve  their  time  in  Alsace-Lorraine,  within  easy  reach 
of  their  homes  and  families. 

There  is  even  ground  for  the  belief  that  the  Emperor's 
policy  is  at  length  bearing  fruit  in  France  herself,  and 
that  the  revengeful  hatred  of  the  French  for  the  Germans 
exists  to-day  more  in  the  imagination  of  such  politicians 
as  the  above-named  "agitators"  than  in  the  hearts  of 
the  French  people.  At  all  events,  this  would  seem  to  be 
demonstrated  by  the  open-hearted  and  impulsive  man- 
ner in  which  the  soldiers  of  these  two  nations  fraternized 

270 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

when  they  met  face  to  face  in  China  after  the  Boxer 
Revolution. 

With  their  usual  sagacity  the  Chinese  themselves 
designated  them  collectively  by  the  words  "Fanko- 
pink,"  which,  literally  translated,  means  "French 
soldiers,"  but  which  they  applied  to  the  only  two 
factions  who  left  the  Chinese  women  and  little  chil- 
dren unmolested,  and  jointly  protected  them  from  the 
brutality  of  the  Japanese  and  other  allies.  Indeed,  at 
the  great  "fete"  given  by  the  French  to  the  Allied  Powers 
in  the  "Violet  City"  or  Imperial  nucleus  of  Pekin  in 
May,  1900,  the  "bonne  camaraderie'1  of  the  German 
and  French  sailors  and  soldiers  was  commented  upon 
by  everybody,  for  after  the  great  "  Retraite  militaire 
aux  -flambeaux"  around  the  famous  Imperial  "Lotus- 
Lake,"  long  files  of  Teutons  and  Gauls  in  full  uniform 
promenaded  arm  in  arm  singing,  at  the  top  of  their 
lungs  and  with  perfect  "ensemble"  alternate  strophes  of 
the  "Marseillaise"  and  the  "  Wacht  am  Rhein  "\ 

Field-Marshal  Count  Waldersee,  pointing  them  out  to 
a  distinguished  French  naval  officer  with  whom  he  was 
conversing,  exclaimed:  "Vous  voyez  bien  que  nous 
sommes  bons  amis!"  adding  with  his  customary  good 
grace  a  few  words  of  gratitude  for  the  heroic  man- 
ner in  which,  a  month  or  so  earlier,  the  palace  he  oc- 
cupied had  been  saved  from  complete  destruction  by 
fire,  thanks  to  the  energetic  efforts  of  the  French  soldiers 
who  had  hurried  to  his  rescue,  and  concluding  his  little 
speech  with  the  very  flattering  and  delicately  courteous 
remark  that  of  all  the  personal  souvenirs  which  he  lost 
then,  what  he  most  regretted  was  his  Cross  of  the 
Legion  of  Honor. 

The  Emperor  has  done  wonders  for  his  navy  since  his 
accession  to  the  Throne.  At  that  time  he  openly  ex- 
pressed the  ambition  to  create  for  his  Empire  during  his 

271 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

reign,  a  fighting  fleet  which  should  rank  among  the 
greatest  and  most  powerful  of  the  world,  and,  to  be 
truthful,  he  is  in  a  fair  way  of  accomplishing  this  aim. 
He  has  also  completely  reorganized  the  army — this  too, 
just  as  was  the  case  with  the  navy,  in  the  face  of  all 
sorts  of  vexatious  opposition,  tacit  or  otherwise,  ema- 
nating from  moss-back  veterans  who  objected  to  innova- 
tions and  resented  them  as  personal  insults — and  he  has 
converted  it  into  what  is  universally  acknowledged  to  be 
the  most  perfectly  ordered  and  armed  one  in  the  world. 

In  the  years  that  have  elapsed  since  he  took  the  reins 
of  government  in  hand,  with  one  definite  object  and  aim 
— and  that  aim  the  greatest  that  man  craves  for,  the 
glorification  of  his  country — he  has  also  entirely  trans- 
formed the  civil  administration  of  the  Prussian  King- 
dom, and  that  of  the  Empire  as  well,  endowing  both 
with  an  entirely  new  and  modern  code  of  laws  in  keep- 
ing with  modern  times. 

To  complete  this  rather  inadequate  description  of  his 
achievements,  it  is  only  necessary  to  add,  merely  men- 
tioning " en  passant"  the  leading  part  he  has  taken  in  the 
matter  of  colonial  expansion,  that  he  has  acquired  at 
home  the  invaluable  territory  of  Heligoland,  which,  com- 
manding the  mouth  of  the  Elbe,  was  essentially  neces- 
sary to  Germany;  and  that  he  has  also  succeeded  in 
making  German  influence  predominant  in  Turkey; 
that  excessively  shrewd  and  clear-sighted  personage, 
His  Majesty  the  Sultan,  listening  only  to  him,  and  hav- 
ing of  his  talents  and  excellence  of  counsel  the  very 
highest  possible  opinion. 

It  is  no  use  mincing  matters  at  this  stage  of  the 
game;  better  be  accused,  as  usual,  of  painting  the  Royal 
lily,  than,  in  a  record  the  only  merit  of  which  is  its  ve- 
racity, to  hesitate  at  the  eleventh  hour  to  say  that  no 
Monarch — none — has  done  for  his  country  what  William 

272 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

II.  has  accomplished  single-handed  in  sixteen  short 
years.  There  is  no  reason  why  it  should  not  be  plain- 
ly stated. 

He  had  the  fortune  at  the  age  of  twenty-nine  to  get 
his  feet  well-planted  on  his  own  particular  ladder,  and 
he  has  climbed  it  with  bewildering  swiftness ;  not  with 
the  blind  self-reliance  of  conceit,  but  with  a  brave 
knowledge  that  he  was  ready  to  do  his  best.  Had  he 
not  come  to  the  Throne  then,  his  might  have  become  a 
life  of  opportunities  denied,  of  powers  unheeded,  of 
capabilities  ignored,  a  poor,  misshapen  shadow  of  what 
it  is  to-day. 

The  higher  he  now  climbs  the  farther  will  his  voice 
be  heard,  and  it  has  long  ere  this  been  one  to  which  the 
world  cannot  afford  to  turn  a  deaf  ear.  He  is  Germany's 
main-spring,  of  that  there  can  be  no  doubt  whatsoever, 
and  Germany  has,  thanks  to  him,  made  giant  steps  tow- 
ards that  light  which  is  not  only  the  appreciation  of  per- 
fect enlightenment — the  reflection  of  a  candle  in  a  mir- 
ror, as  it  were — but  the  candle  itself. 

See,  for  instance,  how  smoothly  and  quickly  he  has 
made  permanent  provision  throughout  his  Realm  for 
the  old  age  and  injury  of  workingmen,  as  well  as  for 
their  widows  and  children,  in  the  event  of  the  latter  be- 
coming fatherless.  For  years  and  years  this  possibility 
had  been  drearily  and  unprofitably  discussed  with  that 
overtrained  diplomacy,  that  mysterious  melodramatic 
bating  of  the  breath  which  savors  so  greatly  of  stage 
conspirators,  and  is  invariably  and  spontaneously 
adopted  when  socialistic  questions  are  mooted!  The 
intentions  of  those  thus  employed  are  no  doubt  singu- 
larly amiable,  albeit  somewhat  too  romantic,  and  with 
no  more  backbone  to  them  than  is  considered  desirable 
for  such  purposes.  The  Emperor  studied  this  emi- 
nently puzzling  question  in  his  keen,  prompt,  deeply 

273 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

probing  fashion,  and,  lo  and  behold!  in  a  twinkle  the 
machine  was  set  going,  and  the  problem  was  solved  by 
means  of  State-aided  insurance,  and  of  all  sorts  of  other 
special  legislation  of  his  own  devising  for  the  benefit 
of  the  laboring  masses. 

His  was  no  half -hysterical  effort,  there  was  no  end- 
less controversy  such  as  is  indulged  in  by  the  socialistic 
leaders  whose  mission  it  seems  to  be  to  reorganize  both 
the  universe  and  society  by  means  of  crime  and  blood- 
shed, there  were  no  mysteries  observed,  no  flamboyant 
precautions  taken,  no  little,  stagey  surprises  and  decep- 
tions prepared,  but  a  straightforward  and  manly  grasp 
of  the  bull  by  the  horns.  He  fought  an  open  fight 
throughout,  dealing  with  the  most  treacherous  and  un- 
reliable of  matters  coolly,  quietly,  perseveringly — this 
man  who  amuses  himself  by  outwitting  the  cleverest 
diplomatists  when  it  suits  him  to  do  so.  Whether  it 
pleases  the  world  or  not  to  acknowledge  the  fact,  it 
knows  "a  n'en  pouvoir  douter"  that  William  II.  is  the 
foremost  organizer  it  possesses,  that  he  foresees  every- 
thing, is  prepared — as  I  have  already  said — for  every 
emergency,  and  that  he  works  so  well  because  his  heart 
is  in  his  work. 

Yes!  Emperor  William  is  an  eminently  practical  man, 
and  what  dreaming  he  indulges  in  is  done  in  private. 
Whatever  he  does  or  says  in  public  is  to  all  appearances 
perfectly  spontaneous  and  without  after-thought.  He 
is  never  at  a  loss  in  the  most  trying  emergencies,  and 
no  one  ever  saw  a  look  of  embarrassment  or  self-con- 
sciousness on  his  face,  although  it  sometimes  wears, 
when  its  possessor  is  "en  petit  comite"  an  expression 
of  calm  reflectiveness  characterized  by  a  curious  and 
extraordinary  readiness  which  makes  one  realize  that 
at  any  moment  he  is  " de  facto"  as  well  as  " de  jure" 
the  captain  of  the  watch. 

274 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

His  singularly  developed  gift  of  gathering  around  him 
with  unfailing  discrimination  just  the  men  he  requires 
is  a  great  trump  in  his  game,  for  at  a  glance  he  recog- 
nizes the  value  and  possible  usefulness  of  each  separate 
individual,  each  separate  pawn  upon  the  chess-board 
of  State  over  which  he  bends  so  assiduously. 


I  do  not  aspire  to  the  dignity  of  writing  a  guide-book, 
therefore  the  descriptions  of  the  palaces  inhabited  in 
rotation  by  the  Imperial  family  will  be,  to  quote  Uncle 
Remus,  "  pow'ful  lackin'"l 

The  "Neues  Palais"  at  Potsdam  alone  offers  points 
of  special  interest,  since  it  is  William's  favorite  residence, 
and  is  not  merely  the  usual  conglomeration  of  splendid 
rooms,  rich  with  porphyry,  alabaster,  mosaics,  gilded 
flourishes  and  stuccoed  arabesques,  which  one  is  wont 
to  associate  with  such  gorgeous  dwelling-places.  The 
"Neues  Palais"  is  something  far  better  than  that,  for 
it  is  a  home  —  if  a  superbly  appointed  one  —  in  the  full 
acceptation  of  the  word,  and  there  the  Emperor  has  al- 
lowed his  personal  tastes  to  have  full  play  with  a  really 
fine  result.  The  great  building  has  a  frontage  of  nearly 
four  hundred  feet,  and  contains  over  two  hundred  rooms, 
halls,  galleries,  and  salons. 

Everything  is  furnished  with  the  extreme  of  refined 
luxury,  and  in  that  regard  the  private  apartments  are 
merely  a  continuation  of  the  wonderful  elegance  and 
beauty  displayed  in  the  State  drawing-rooms,  the  ban- 
queting-hall,  the  Jasper  Gallery,  the  music-room,  etc., 
and  are  replete  with  works  of  art  from  all  quarters  of 
the  globe,  gathered  together  mostly  by  the  Kaiser,  al- 
though his  priceless  collections  include  many  costly 
specimens  dating  back  to  the  days  of  Frederick  the 
Great,  and  a  quantity  of  that  Monarch's  personal  relics, 

275 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

which  his  descendant  prizes  more  highly  than  anything 
else  there. 

Among  the  State  apartments  there  is  one  that  calls  for 
especial  mention,  the  famous  "  Muschelsaal. "  It  is  very 
long,  displaying  really  vast  distances  of  fairy-like  mag- 
nificence, and  its  decoration  is  of  what  may  be  termed 
an  extravagant  and  exquisite  phantasy.  The  walls  are 
encrusted  with  shells  of  all  sizes  and  descriptions,  each 
one  gleaming  with  the  faint,  delicate,  elusive  chatoy- 
ment  of  its  particular  "nacre,"  creating  waves  of  inex- 
pressibly beautiful  iridescence  wherever  the  eye  rests. 
The  effect  is  at  one  and  the  same  time  curiously  sumpt- 
uous and  wonderfully  refreshing  and  original,  making 
of  this  gallery — unique  in  the  world — a  choice  retreat 
for  all  that  is  ideal,  delicate,  and  lovely,  a  positive  rev- 
elation of  an  artistic  sense  seldom  encountered  in  Eu- 
rope. 

There  are  many  other  corners  in  this  great  palace 
which  leave  upon  the  visitor  an  ineffaceable  impression 
of  having  dreamed  and  not  really  seen  their  splendor; 
for,  save  in  museums,  where  the  most  admirable  ob- 
jects are  so  stiffly  disposed  that  much  of  their  charm 
and  beauty  are  lost,  one  does  not  encounter  so  delicious 
a  profusion  of  rarities.  The  design  and  colors  of  the 
silks  and  satins  shot  with  gold,  laminated  with  silver, 
embroidered  and  painted  with  the  five-clawed  dragons  of 
Chinese  Emperors,  the  amazingly  chiselled,  gem-inlaid 
bronzes,  the  priceless  ebony  carvings  like  petrified  lace, 
the  antique  enamels,  blue  as  enamels  are  no  longer 
nowadays,  the  jades,  the  cloisonnes,  the  century -old 
lacquers  brought  from  the  Far  East,  are  alone  worthy 
of  a  sort  of  amazed  reverence. 

The  " Neues  Palais"  is  indeed  a  place  of  great  beauty 
and  stateliness,  surrounded  as  it  is  by  grand  trees  and 
close-shaven,  flower-adorned  turf  of  a  singularly  vivid, 

276 


BREAKFASTING,  "EN  TETE-A-TETE,"    ON    A    WINTER    MORNING 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

emerald  green.  It  is  a  poem  in  stone  and  iron,  epic 
and  epopee  at  one  and  the  same  time,  and  one  cannot 
help  gazing  with  enchanted  eyes  at  its  long  lines  of  ma- 
jestic terraces,  the  dusky  avenues  of  its  park,  the  vast, 
solemn  mass  of  the  edifice  towering  up  against  the  sky, 
for  it  is  a  spot  where  lovers  might  well  forget  the  world 
and  its  weight  of  pain.  Yews  and  bay-trees  and  Him- 
alayan cedars  make  perpetual  verdure  in  the  back- 
ground, and  immense  hot-houses  and  orangeries  make 
ceaseless  summer  within  its  walls,  where  magnificent 
tapestries  and  priceless  hangings,  wainscotings  of  pre- 
ciously inlaid  woods  and  unique  paintings  of  Titian,  Tin- 
toretto, Rubens,  Giordano,  Murillo,  and  many  other 
long-dead  masters,  meet  the  enraptured  eye. 

This  is  no  mere  gorgeous  shell,  from  which  the  jewel 
of  life  is  absent,  but,  as  I  have  said,  a  homelike  spot,  a 
place  redolent  of  " chez  soi"  that  one  can  care  about 
with  one's  whole  heart,  and  to  which,  wherever  one  may 
be,  one  always  desires  to  return.  The  flame  on  one's 
own  hearth  has  something  of  the  altar  fires  about  it, 
something  heavenly,  almost  sacred,  something  that 
means  happiness,  comfort,  security,  peace;  and  the 
hearths  of  the  " Neues  Palais"  are  alone  typical  of  such 
feelings  to  its  Imperial  owner,  for  in  all  his  other  resi- 
dences he  is  only  "  de  passage,  tantot  id,  tantot  la,"  where- 
as with  this  one  it  is  different — it  is  home.  One  might 
discover  this  by  a  mere  glance  at  the  cosey  breakfast - 
room  where,  every  morning,  the  Imperial  couple  take 
the  first  meal  of  the  day  alone  together,  not  even  a 
servant  being  allowed  to  disturb  this  "  tete-a-tete,"  during 
which  matters  intimate  and  political,  weighty  and  other- 
wise, are  discussed.  For  this,  winter  and  summer  alike, 
the  Empress  makes  a  point  of  rising  at  six  o'clock,  and 
permits  nothing  to  prevent  her  appearance  at  the  pret- 
tily decked  table  a  few  minutes  before  the  Emperor 

277 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

enters  the  room,  since  it  is  one  of  her  greatest  pleasures 
to  listen  to  his  quick,  clever,  earnest  talk,  and  the 
plans  and  projects  he  puts  before  her  with  a  character- 
istic art  of  conciseness. 

Moreover,  the  Emperor  understands  yet  another  art 
to  perfection,  and  that  is  to  surround  himself  with  abso- 
lutely faithful  servants.  They  are  never  sure  that  he 
may  not  arrive  at  any  moment,  and  therefore  keep 
everything  in  readiness  for  his  inspection  at  any  hour 
of  the  day  or  night.  He  always  rewards  fidelity,  instead 
of,  like  most  people,  contenting  himself  with  merely  ac- 
cepting it  as  a  due,  and,  in  consequence,  his  house-ser- 
vants are  not  the  usual  mob  of  rogues  robbing  their 
master  to  right  and  to  left,  and  speaking  evilly  of  him  on 
every  possible  occasion.  He  lets  the  humblest  man  or 
woman  in  his  service  enjoy  the  moral  tonic  of  hope, 
and  gives  them  the  certitude  that  they  may,  if  they  so 
wish  it,  rise  to  higher  offices,  which  is  certainly  a  most 
efficacious  method  of  dealing  with  them,  and  one  is 
ready  to  take  one's  oath  that  on  none  of  his  estates  do 
his  people  steal  a  "pfennig's"  worth,  for  not  only  are 
they  one  and  all  very  generously  paid,  but  their  probity, 
their  loyalty  and  affection  for  him  are  discernible  in 
their  every  act  and  word. 

This  same  enviable  "savoir-faire"  of  his  is  noticeable 
in  the  methods  he  employed  for  the  bringing  up  of  his 
splendid  family,  methods  that  have  produced  extraor- 
dinarily good  results  in  all  and  every  instance,  so  far. 

The  Crown  Prince  is  a  healthy -minded,  healthy- 
bodied  youth,  who  has  won  golden  opinions  from  all 
those  who  know  him.  Physically  he  resembles  his 
mother  more  than  his  father,  but  mentally  he  is  very 
like  the  Emperor,  quick,  energetic,  courageous,  thorough 
in  everything  he  undertakes,  and  certainly  destined  to 
be  one  day  just  such  another  wise  and  clever  Ruler. 

278 


IMPERATOR    ET   REX 

He  does  not,  in  spite  of  all  the  pleasures  and  amusements 
life  offers  him,  look  lightly  or  heedlessly  upon  it.  On 
the  contrary,  he  very  seriously  realizes  that  one  who 
some  day  will  be  virtually  the  autocratic  Sovereign  of 
fifty  million  people,  as  well  as  the  absolute  master  of 
the  greatest  military  power  in  the  world,  cannot  waste 
much  time  by  the  way-side. 

The  years  he  spent  at  the  School  for  Military  Cadets 
at  Ploen,  and  subsequently  at  the  Bonn  University, 
were  well  employed  and  hard-working  ones,  and  dur- 
ing his  holidays  he  was  almost  constantly  with  his 
father,  who  made  a  point  of  discussing  weighty  matters 
with  him,  and  of  making  a  companion  of  him  in  every 
sense  of  the  word,  so  that  a  perfect  and  rare  confidence 
exists  between  them,  and  that  from  an  early  age  the 
young  man  has  been  trained  in  the  way  he  should  go. 

The  other  Princes  are  yet  too  young  to  be  definitely 
described,  but,  like  their  elder  brother,  they  are  whole- 
some in  mind  and  body,  clever,  affectionate,  and  ex- 
ceedingly good-natured  and  conscientious,  while  "  Prin- 
zesschen"  —the  very  core  of  her  father's  heart  and 
apple  of  his  eye — I  have  already  portrayed.  Surely  Em- 
peror William  can  well  be  proud  of  his  children,  for  they, 
indeed,  do  him  honor,  physically  and  morally,  and  there 
is  something  they  will  be  always  able  to  truthfully  say 
of  the  father  who  has  done  so  much  for  them,  namely, 
that 

"  Where  he  fixed  his  heart,  he  set  his  hand 
To  do  all  things  he  willed." 

He  has  willed  that  his  children  should  grow  up  to  be 
a  crown  of  glory  to  their  mother  and  to  himself,  and  so 
they  certainly  have  proved  to  be,  thus  far.  They  have 
not  been  neglected,  as  so  many  children,  be  they  high  or 
be  they  low,  be  they  rich  or  be  they  poor,  are,  nowadays 

279 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

only  too  often  by  their  parents.  They  have  never  been 
allowed,  metaphorically  speaking,  to  loll  into  deep  chairs 
with  their  knees  higher  than  their  heads,  as  it  is  the  ten- 
dency of  the  rising  generation  to  do,  and  they  show  not 
the  least  sign  of  that  "  je  m'enfichisme"  which  marks 
our  period  as  such  a  lamentably  caddish  one: 

"  We  shut  our  hearts  up  nowadays 
Like  some  old  music-box  that  plays 
Unfashionable  airs." 

We  have  most  of  us  forgotten,  alas!  the  value  of  a 
well-bred  calmness  of  demeanor  and  of  a  true  courtli- 
ness of  manner,  but  these  Imperial  lads  at  Berlin  are 
upright,  trim,  and  exquisitely  brought  up  on  strictly 
high-bred  and  gentlemanly  lines ;  that  is  why  they  be- 
have under  all  circumstances  with  that  finish  and  ab- 
sence of  self-consciousness  which  only  comes  to  those  who 
have  been  trained  by  superior  parents;  that  is  why,  also, 
they  are,  one  and  all,  more  attractive,  more  truthful, 
honest,  noble,  and  worthier  of  praise  than  the  greater 
number  of  their  congeners,  and  why,  lastly,  they  lavish 
upon  their  father  and  mother  a  love  amounting  almost 
to  adoration,  but  by  no  means  excluding  the  deepest 
and  most  touching  respect  and  reverence. 

Their  anxiety  while  the  Emperor  was  ailing  this  win- 
ter was  absolutely  overwhelming.  Absently,  mechani- 
cally, they  went  through  their  allotted  tasks,  for  many 
things  had  suddenly  become  rather  violently  and  pain- 
fully real  to  them,  many  things  they  had  never  thought 
of  before  had  assumed  significance  and  importance,  shak- 
ing them  with  very  tumultuous  thoughts  and  feelings. 

Children  and  very  young  people  are  slow  to  take  alarm, 
but  when  once  they  do  so  are  apt  easily  to  overstep  all 
bounds  of  reason  and  wisdom.  These  children  had  un- 
til then  always  obtained  what  they  wanted  before  they 

280 


LET    NOT    THY    LEFT    HAND    KNOW 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

had  even  learned  to  desire,  but  now  they  seemed  to  be 
entering  dark  and  narrow  paths  of  a  very  sombre 
and  grewsome  appearance.  Would  they  too  have  to 
explore  those  roads  of  pain  and  of  sorrow  which  so  many 
of  God's  creatures  are  forced  to  traverse,  with  but  one 
ardent  wish  in  their  souls,  that  of  being  granted  the 
boon  of  the  life  they  pray  for? — a  road  of  many  turnings, 
plentifully  provided  with  thorny  hedges  to  tear  one  on 
the  way. 

When  at  last  they  reached  the  peace  and  calm  of  the 
harbor,  when  at  last  the  benignity  of  the  Emperor's 
malady  was  established  beyond  all  manner  of  doubt, 
the  mother  and  children  looked  curiously  at  each  other 
with  a  gleam  of  almost  fierce  triumph  in  their  haggard 
eyes.  They  seemed  to  have  just  returned  from  a  field 
of  battle,  where  they  had  been  exposed  to  some  mur- 
derous volley  of  fire  and  of  iron.  Indeed,  the  Empress's 
health  gave  way  altogether,  and  at  the  present  moment 
she  has  scarcely  as  yet  recovered  her  usual  spirits  and 
equanimity. 

Life  is  full  of  gravity  and  of  tragedy,  but  love  is  the 
gravest  part  of  it,  for  it  teaches  us  lessons  which  are 
grave  tragedies  in  themselves,  and  also  how  to  fight  a 
good  fight. 

That  this  short  illness  of  Emperor  William  should 
have  been  so  callously  exploited  by  the  sensational 
press  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  did  much  to  make 
this  trial  harder  to  bear  both  for  him  and  his,  their 
only  compensation  for  so  much  unnecessary  aggrava- 
tion of  annoyance  being  the  expressions  of  sympathy 
as  well  as  the  hopes  for  his  recovery  that  poured  in 
from  all  sides.  Certainly  the  trivial  and  quite  minor 
operation  to  which  he  was  subjected  has  served  one 
purpose,  besides  that  of  once  and  for  all  removing  from 
the  minds  of  those  who  love  and  admire  him  all  idea  of 

281 


IMPERATOR    ET    REX 

a  serious  disease;  namely,  that  of  showing  very  clearly 
how  greatly  he  has  endeared  himself  to  the  hearts  of  his 
subjects — rich  and  poor  alike,  but  especially  the  poor, 
among  whom  he  so  often  goes  quietly  abroad  like 
Haroun-al-Rashid,  with  a  discerning  eye  and  a  helpful 
hand.  They  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  they 
can  ill  spare  him;  they  know  now  that  the  continuance 
of  his  reign  constitutes  to  them  the  best  guarantee  of 
peace  and  of  prosperity,  and  their  joy  at  his  complete 
recovery  must  have  gratified  him  profoundly. 

His  first  outing  after  this  recovery  was  one  of  those 
moments  that  impress  themselves  indelibly  on  the  mem- 
ory— a  moment  when  words  are  suddenly  futile,  when 
hearts  need  them  not  to  comprehend  each  other.  The 
multitude  cheered  him  madly,  and  the  enthusiasm 
aroused  by  his  reappearance  among  them  filled  the  air 
with  delighted  clamors. 

His  chief  method  of  making  his  people  love  him  has 
been  to  make  himself  more  and  more  worthy  of  that 
great  love — an  odd,  old-fashioned  theory  of  action,  but 
the  only  one  that  makes  the  permanence  of  love  pos- 
sible! 

Time,  better  than  any  pen,  be  it  ever  so  convincing,  will 
show  what  Germany — nay,  what  all  Europe — has  gained 
from  the  advent  upon  the  scene  of  William  II.,  a  man 
whom  so  many  still  persist  wilfully  to  misrepresent. 
He  has  had  throughout  the  courage  of  his  opinion, 
disdaining  that  of  the  world;  he  has  risked  all  to  reach 
his  aim,  sparing  neither  his  time,  his  strength,  nor  his 
pains  by  night  or  by  day,  and  his  reward  is  at  last 
within  his  hand.  Who  will  dare  to  say  that  it  is  not 
well-earned  ? 


THE    END 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


REC'D   LD 


MAY  20  I960 


BEC'DLD   JUN1 


72- 


f 


BYTHE-AUTHOR-OF 

THE-MARTYRDOM-OF-AN-EMPRESS 


